THE LIFE AND LETTERS 

OF 

HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

1765-1848 

IN TWO VOLUMES 
VOLUME I 



THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF 

HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

FEDERALIST 

1765-1848 

BT 

SAMUEL ELIOT MORISON, Ph.D. (Harv.) 

WITH PORTRAITS AND OTHER 
ILLUSTRATIONS 

VOL. I 

A 




BOSTON AND NEW YORK 

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 

xltif Vtibtzfibe press Cambridge 

1913 



E34o 



COPYKIGHT, 1913, BY SAMUEL ELIOT MORISON 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 

Published November iqij 



ft <f^&4 
©CI.A357599 



TO MY MOTHER 



4 



Tell me, ye learned, shall we for ever be adding 
so much to the bulk — so little to the stock ? 

Shall we for ever make new books, as apotheca- 
ries make new mixtures, by pouring only out of one 
vessel into another? 

Are we for ever to be twisting, and untwisting 
the same rope? for ever in the same track — for 
ever at the same pace? 

Shall we be destined to the days of eternity, . . . 

to be shewing the relicks of learning, as monks do 

the relicks of their saints — without working one 

— one single miracle with them? 

— Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman 

Vol. V, Chap. I. 



A 



PREFACE 

In the following pages I have attempted to describe the 
life of a man of vigorous and fascinating personality, who 
was born in Boston ten years before the Revolution com- 
menced, who entered national politics during Washing- 
ton's second administration, who was a leader in the in- 
teresting movement that culminated in the Hartford 
Convention of 1814, and who lived to take a part in the 
presidential campaign of 1848. Harrison Gray Otis was 
not a great statesman, but rather a typical representative 
of that political and social organization which has passed 
into history under the name of the Federal or Federalist 
party. This fact alone has made his biography worth 
writing from a historical point of view. I have endeavored 
therefore, not only to relate the events of his life, but 
critically to describe his ideas, his feelings, and his preju- 
dices, and to discover the motives guiding his action in 
the political crises of his day. I have not confined myself, 
however, to political biography, for, in addition to being 
a politician, Otis was an orator and a lawyer of the very 
first rank, a leader in social life, and a man whose person- 
ality did much to influence the community in which he 
lived. 

I may as well confess to my readers at the start that I 
am a descendant of Harrison Gray Otis, four generations 
removed. Contrary to general opinion, I believe that a 
statesman's biography can best be written by a de- 
scendant, if he can preserve the natural sympathy that 
comes from kinship and family tradition, without sacri- 
ficing historical judgment and criticism. My readers can 



X 



PREFACE 



best judge how far I have succeeded in keeping the 
balance. 

The materials for this work have been drawn primarily 
from the papers that Otis left behind him. They are now 
used for literary purposes for the first time. Confident, 
as I am, that the well-springs of political action can be 
traced mainly through the personal correspondence of the 
actors, I have quoted freely from the Otis manuscripts, 
and printed such documents of historical value as are too 
long to be incorporated in the text, after the chapters 
that they illustrate. Other contemporary political corre- 
spondence now available, as well as newspapers and offi- 
cial sources, has been utilized, and an earnest search has 
been made for manuscript material outside the usual re- 
positories. For secondary material, the few sketches of 
Otfs's life printed heretofore have proved of little value, 
beyond giving details of his early life; but the general 
works and monographs covering the period have afforded 
me much assistance. 

All quotations from manuscript sources are given with- 
out change of wording, capitalization, spelling, or punc- 
tuation, with the exception that canceled passages have 
been suppressed, raised letters have been reduced to the 
line of the text (Gov r rendered as Govr., y e as ye, etc.), 
and in punctuation, the dash, where obviously ending 
a sentence, has been replaced by a period. In a very 
few instances punctuation has been supplied where the 
lack of it obscured the meaning. It will be understood 
that all matter printed in the smaller type is quoted. 

This undertaking would have been impossible without 
the assistance and advice rendered by many individuals 
and institutions. I am indebted most of all to Professor 
Albert Bushnell Hart, at whose suggestion this work was 
begun, and under whose direction and encouragement it 



PREFACE xi 

has been carried out; to Professors Edward Charming 
and Frederick J. Turner for their helpful criticism; to 
Mr. Charles K. Bolton, for granting me every facility at 
the Boston Athenaeum; and to Mr. Worthington C. Ford, 
for opening to me the manuscript collections of the 
Massachusetts Historical Society, and for giving me his 
constant personal interest and cooperation. Finally, what- 
ever merit my book may possess is due primarily to the 
historical training that I have received at Harvard 
University. 

Boston, 
December, 1912. 



CONTENTS 

I. Family and Childhood. 1765-1775, ^t. 1-10 1 

Forbears — Patriot Otises and Tory Grays — Child- 
hood in Boston — Latin school — Reminiscences of 
April 19, 1775. 

II. Boyhood and Youth. 1775-1783, ,£t. 10-18 . 15 

Life at Barnstable — Return to Boston — Changed 
conditions — Activities of Otis's father — Death of his 
mother — At Harvard College. 

III. Law and Business. 1783-1796, Mt. 18-31 . . 27 

Bankruptcy of his father — Studies law with John 
Lowell — Shays's Rebellion — Legal business — Wash- 
ington's inauguration — ■ Marriage — Stage plays — 
Loyalist property — A leading lawyer — Copley pur- 
chase. 

IV. A Hamiltonian Federalist. 1794-1796, Mt. 
29-31 45 

The growth of two national parties — Situation in 
Massachusetts — The Essex Junto — Influence of the 
French Revolution — Otis's political debut — "Second 
Shirt Speech" — Elected to Congress. 

V. The French Peril. 1796-1798, Mt. 31-33 . . 59 

Situation in 1797 — The Fifth Congress — Maiden 
speech — American policy of France — Danger of 
invasion — Letter to General Heath — French influ- 
ence in Congress. 

VI. The Crisis of 1798, Mt. 32 72 

First two sessions of the Fifth Congress — Lyon affair 
— The X. Y. Z. dispatches and their effect — Letters 
to and from Jonathan Mason, General Heath, T. H. 
Perkins, John Gardner. 



xiv CONTENTS 

VII. Defense and Reprisal. 1798, ^Et. 32 . . .97 

Federalist policy of 1798 — Army and Navy Acts — 
Question of hidden motives — Naval retaliation. 

VIII. A System of Terror. 1798, Mt. 32 . . . 106 

Otis's part in the Naturalization, Alien, and Sedition 
Acts — His defense of the power of Congress to punish 
seditious libel — Letter from Judge Story. 

IX. The Republican Court. 1797-1801, Mt. 32-35 125 

Social life in Philadelphia, as told in Otis's letters — In 
Washington, 1800-1801 — Visit to Mount Vernon. 

X. Adams Asserts Himself. 1798-1799, iEt. 33-34 151 

The envoys in Paris — Otis's visit to Adams and Gerry 
— His reelection — Federalist intolerance — Divisions 
in the party — Hamilton's war policy — Adams decides 
for peace — Otis tries to heal the breach — Essex Junto 
opinions — Letters on French relations and the Logan 
affair. 

XI. Intrigue and Defeat. 1799-1800, ;Et. 33-35 . 176 

The Sixth Congress; elections and debates — Intrigues 
against Adams — Otis vs. Pickering — Electioneering 
in 1800 — Letters from It. G. Harper. 

XII. Jefferson or Burr? 1800-1801, Mt. 35 . . 199 

Otis's last session in Congress — The attempt to renew 
the Sedition Act — The Judiciary Act — Midnight 
appointments — Election in the House — End of an 
era — Letters from Samuel Sewall, Theophilus Parsons 
and Otis. 

XIII. Harry Otis, Friend and Host .... 217 

Character and personality — Not a Puritan — Ap- 
pearance — Friends and enemies — Relations with 
the Adamses — Wit — Social Life in Boston at the 
beginning of the nineteenth century — Clubs — Fed- 
eralism in society — Otis's houses — Hospitality — 
Eating and drinking — Old Madeira. 



CONTENTS xv 

XIV. Family Relations — Expansion — Literature 
— Oratory — Harvard College. 1801-1816, 
Mt. 36-51 235 

Otis's tastes primarily domestic — Refusal of a nomi- 
nation for governor — The Otis family — Grays and 
Turners — Material expansion — Literary revival — 
Otis and William Tudor — Otis as an orator — Rela- 
tions with Harvard College — Student rebellions — 
Ticknor's reforms. 

XV. Calm, Conspiracy, and the Chesapeake 

Affair. 1802-1807, Mt. 36-42 257 

Otis in the State Legislature — Judicial reforms — 
Banking schemes — Federalism and the Louisiana 
Purchase — Ely Amendment — Secession plot of 1804 
— Decline of Federalism — Foreign affairs — Boston 
and the Chesapeake — Letters of John Rutledge, 
R. G. Harper, Otis, and Harrison Gray. 

XVI. The Federalist Machine. 1800-1823, Mt. 35-58 286 

Growth of a Federalist party organization in Massa- 
chusetts — The Legislative Caucus in session — The 
Central Committee — Methods of nomination — The 
machine in Boston — Election Day — Political din- 
ners — Educating the voter — A national Federalist 
Club — Presidential nominations : Secret Federalist 
National Conventions of 1808 and 1812 — Letters 
illustrating Federalist methods. 

XVII. Jefferson's Embargo. 1807-1808, Mt. 42-43 . 321 

Objects of the Embargo — Its economic effect — 
Essex Junto views — Federalist recovery in New 
England — Recall of John Quincy Adams — Otis 
at the parting of the ways — Boston's plea for miti- 
gation — The Election of 1808 — Letters of Josiah 
Dwight and George Cabot. 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Harrison Gray Otis {Photogravure) . . . Frontispiece \/ 

From a portrait by Chester Harding, 1830. In the possession of 
Mrs. John Holmes Morison. 

The Parents of Harrison Gray Otis . . . . 16 */ 

Samuel Allyne Otis, from a portrait by Stuart, and Elizabeth Gray 
Otis, from a portrait by Copley. In the possession of Harrison 
Gray Otis, Esq. 



Sally Foster Otis (Mrs. Harrison Gray Otis) . .126 

From a miniature by Malbone. In the possession of Miss Sophia 
Harrison Ritchie. 



s/ 



I/ 

A Letter of Harrison Gray Otis 150 

From the original in the Otis Manuscripts. 

Inside Page of a Circular Letter of the Federal- 
ist Central Committee of Massachusetts . . 292 
From the original in the possession of Miss Sarah L. Guild. 



ABBREVIATIONS USED IN FOOTNOTES 



Amer. Hist. Rev. 
Gibbs 

King 
Loring 



American Historical Review. Vols, i-xvii (1895- 
1912). 

George Gibbs (ed.), Memoirs of the Administrations 
of Washington and Adams, edited from the papers of 
Oliver Wolcott. 2 vols., New York, 1846. 

Charles R. King, The Life and Correspondence of 
Rufus King. 6 vols., New York, 1894-1900. 

James S. Loring, The Hundred Boston Orators. Bos- 
ton, 1852. 

New Eng. Hist. Gen. Reg. New England Historical and Genealogical Register. 

Vols, i-lxvi (1847-1912). 



N. E. Federalism 

Niles 

Otis' Letters 

Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc. 



Henry Adams (ed.), Documents relating to New Eng- 
land Federalism, 1800-1815. Boston, 1877. 

Hezekiah Niles (ed.), The Weekly Register. Balti- 
more, 1810-1848. 

H. G. Otis, Otis' Letters in Defence of the Hartford 
Convention. Boston, 1824. 

Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society. 
Vols, i-xx (first series, 1791-1886); 2d ser., vols, i- 
xx (second series, 1887-1906); vols, xli-xlv (third 
series, 1907-1912). 



References to the Works of Hamilton, Jefferson, and Madison, are to the 
"Congress," editions (1851, 1856, and 1865, respectively). 

All letters, documents, and quotations are from the original papers in the 
Otis MSS., unless reference to another source is given in a footnote. 



THE LIFE AND LETTEES OF 
HARBISON GRAY OTIS 

CHAPTER I 

FAMILY AND CHILDHOOD 
1765-1775, jet. 1-10 

Harrison Gray Otis was born in Boston, on the 8th 
day of October, 1765. At that time every one of his three 
names stood for respectability and long-established posi- 
tion in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. The name 
of Otis, in particular, was already famous throughout the 
British Empire. 

With his birth, the Otis family reached its sixth genera- 
tion in America. 1 The pioneers of the family, John Otis, 
father and son, were yeomen of Glastonbury, Somerset- 
shire, whence they emigrated during the third decade of 
the seventeenth century, and settled at Hingham in the 
colony of Massachusetts Bay. The younger John later 
removed to the township of Barnstable, in the lower 
part of Cape Cod, and there, near the "Great Marshes," 
built the substantial homestead that sheltered future 
generations of Otises. Nothing further seems to be known 

1 The facts regarding the earlier Otises are taken from H. N. Otis, "Gene- 
alogical and Historical Memoir of Otis Family " (New Eng. Hist. Gen. Reg., 
ii, 281; iv, 143; also published separately, Boston, 1850); Eliot's Biographical 
Dictionary ; A. Otis & C. F. Swift, Genealogical Notes of Barnstable Families ; 
W. H. Whitmore, The Mass. Civil List (Albany, 1870); Alice Brown, Mercy 
Warren, and Wm. Tudor, James Otis. The family name, during the seven- 
teenth century, was spelled indifferently Otis, Ottis, Oates, Otey. 



2 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

about him, except that he was fined forty shillings for 
selling cider in 1675, and died in 1683. 

John Otis the third, born at Hingham in 1657, eldest 
son of the cider-selling John, attained membership in the 
colonial aristocracy by the familiar route of law and pub- 
lic service. Judge Otis, as he was generally called, held va- 
rious military and judicial appointments in Barnstable 
County, and represented the town of Barnstable for 
twenty successive years in the Great and General Court. 
In 1708 he was chosen a member of His Majesty's Council 
for Massachusetts, the highest position that the colony 
could offer a native son, and until his death in 1727 he was 
annually reelected to that honourable board. His char- 
acter was easy-going and genial, with the same humor 
and charm of manner for which his great-grandson, Har- 
rison Gray Otis, became famous. His sixth child James, 
the grandfather of Harrison Gray Otis, was born in 1702. 

James Otis, like his father, was largely self-educated, 
and followed a similar career; but he possessed an en- 
tirely different temperament. His portrait by Copley 
shows a man forcible in his opinions, conscious of his dig- 
nity, and lacking any trace of humor. "Colonel" James 
(as he was called, in order to distinguish him from his 
famous son of the same name), studied law, became, ac- 
cording to John Adams, the "undisputed head of the bar 
in Barnstable, Plymouth, and Bristol Counties," and in 
1748 received the appointment of Attorney-General of 
the Province. Three years before Harrison Gray Otis 
was born, in 1762, this distinguished lawyer was elected 
for the first time to the Council. 

Colonel Otis's gradual rise in the estimation of his con- 
temporaries is indicated by the fact that his eldest son's 
name was placed eleventh in a class of thirty-one on the 
records of Harvard College, and his youngest son's, second 



FAMILY AND CHILDHOOD 3 

in a class of thirty-five. 2 He never permanently joined the 
court circles at Boston, however, but resided in his grand- 
father's homestead at Barnstable, where thirteen children 
were born to him and his wife Mary Allyne. Infant 
mortality was high in colonial days, even under the best 
conditions, and no less than six of the thirteen died within 
six months of their births. But the record of the survivors 
shows that quality was not sacrificed to quantity in the 
family of James and Mary Otis. Of the six who reached 
maturity, Joseph and Samuel were fairly prominent in the 
American Revolution, and James and Mercy became 
leaders in the same cause. 

Samuel Allyne Otis, the father of Harrison Gray Otis, 
was the tenth child of this large family, and the youngest 
of those who reached maturity. He was born in 1740, 
graduated from Harvard College in 1759, and then re- 
turned to the parental roof with the intention of taking 
up the study of law. At that time his eldest brother and 
senior by fifteen years, James Otis "the Patriot," had 
resided nearly a decade in Boston, and was already the 
leading lawyer of the province. James, who took a great 
interest in the education of young Sam, wrote their father 
in 1760: 

Very sure I am, if he should stay a year or two from the time 
of his degree, before he begins with the law, he will be able to 
make better progress in one week, than he could now, without 
a miracle, in six. ... I hold it to be of vast importance that a 
young man should be able to make some eclat at his opening, 
which it is vain to expect from one under twenty five: missing 
of this is very apt to discourage and dispirit him, and what is 
of worse consequence, may prevent the application of clients 
ever after. It has been observed before I was born, if a man don't 
obtain a character in any profession soon after his first appear- 
ance, he hardly will ever obtain one. 3 

2 Until 1774, class lists at Harvard College were arranged according to the 
social position of the students' parents. 
8 Tudor, James Otis, 11. 



4 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

Sam followed his brother's advice, but, finding the study 
of law distasteful, asked his father to set him up as a mer- 
chant in Boston. Although the earlier Otises were self- 
made men, the Colonel could not but humor his youngest 
and favorite son. Before long we find advertisements in 
the Boston Evening Post, to the effect that " Samuel 
Allyne Otis will sell very cheap, at his store No. 5 South 
Side of the Town Dock, New Flour, cordage & boltrope, 
Lead & Shott, New England Rum made under his own 
inspection etc." As one would expect of a petted younger 
son, Samuel never developed the high ability of his father 
and grandfather; but he inherited from the latter, and 
transmitted to his son, a gift of personal charm and popu- 
larity that stood him in good stead in reverses. 

Soon after he settled in Boston, Samuel contracted an 
alliance with Elizabeth, the only daughter of Harrison 
Gray, and they were married on the last day of 1764. It 
was the second time that the families were connected 
by marriage. The Grays were wealthy townspeople, al- 
though a newer family than the Otises. Elizabeth's grand- 
father, Edward Gray, who had emigrated to Boston from 
Lincolnshire as an apprentice in 1686, became in course 
of time the owner of large rope-walks, the profit from 
which allowed him to bring up a family of nine children 
in considerable luxury. At the time of his death, in 1757, 
his son Harrison was serving his fourth term as Treasurer 
and Receiver-General of the Province, a well-remun- 
erated position of great dignity. Harrison Gray married 
Elizabeth Lewis, the daughter of Ezekiel Lewis, another 
prominent Boston merchant. Elizabeth Gray, their only 
daughter and youngest child, was said to have been a 
beautiful woman; and her character, as we shall have 
occasion to observe, was one of singular beauty. 

After their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Allyne Otis 



FAMILY AND CHILDHOOD 5 

purchased a house in Boston near the present Bowdoin 
Square, adjoining the site of the Revere House. There, 
on October 8, 1765, their first child was born, and named 
Harrison Gray Otis after his maternal grandfather. No 
one, however, thought of calling him Harrison. "Harry" 
he was nicknamed from the first, and Harry Otis he al- 
ways remained to his family and friends. 

Enough has been said of Harry's forbears to show with 
what advantages he was endowed from his birth. Of pure 
English stock, strengthened by five generations on New 
England soil, and refined by three generations of public 
service and social position, he could have asked nothing 
more of heredity. His environment was equally advan- 
tageous. Boston, with its surroundings of water, open 
spaces, and hilly pastures, was then an ideal place in 
which to bring up a boy. Harry made full use of his op- 
portunities for play and mischief, and developed a rugged 
constitution that carried him past his eighty-third birth- 
day. He was a sturdy, healthy little fellow, with ruddy 
cheeks, dark hair, and inquisitive blue eyes. Every year, 
on Guy Fawkes' day, a new pair of leather breeches was 
given him, and reserved for "best " so long as the breeches 
of the previous vintage held out. Thomas Handasyd 
Perkins, one of his lifelong friends, afterwards said, 
"Harry Otis was always the handsomest, brightest, and 
most charming boy of all our companions. Everything 
he did was better done than any of the rest of us could 
do it." 

Harry was given the best education that the time and 
place afforded. Luckily for him, the old Puritan ideas of 
education were much mitigated among such broad- 
minded persons of the upper class as his parents were. 
His childhood was not clouded by a severe repression of 
his natural boyish impulses, or by a constant reminder 



6 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

that the mark of Adam was upon him. But he was given 
a good religious training at home, and sent at an early age 
to schools where female teachers were unheard of, and 
where a liberal use was made of the rod. The first school 
that he attended was on Hanover Street, kept by one 
Master Griffiths, a queer old fellow who used to reward 
the good scholars every Saturday by letting them scramble 
for shellbarks which he threw from his window into the 
courtyard. At the age of seven, Harry was promoted to 
the Latin School, where Master John Lovell and his son 
James were the reigning tyrants. We shall let Mr. Otis 
recall his school life in his own words : 4 

I perfectly remember the day I entered the School, July, 
1773, being then seven years and nine months old. Immedi- 
ately after the end of Commencement week, I repaired, accord- 
ing to the rule prescribed for candidates for admission to the 
lowest form, to old Master Lovell's house, situate in School 
Street, nearly opposite the site of the old School house. I was 
early on the ground, anticipated only by Mr. John Hubbard, 
who lived near — it being understood that the boys were to 
take their places on the form in the same routine that they pre- 
sented themselves at the house. The probationary exercise 
was reading a few verses in the Bible. Having passed muster in 
this, I was admitted as second boy on the lowest form. 

I attended school from that time until April, 1775, (the day 
of Lexington battle), being then on the second form. The School 
was divided into seven classes. A separate bench or form was 
allotted to each, besides a skipping form, appropriated for a 
few boys who were intended to be pushed forward one year 
in advance. The books studied the first year were Cheever's 
Accidence, a small Nomenclature, and Corderius' Colloquies. 
The second year, Aesop's Fables, and towards the close of it, 
Eutropius and Ward's Lilly's Grammar. The third year Eu- 
tropius and Grammar continued, and a book commenced 

4 From a letter of December 17, 1844, printed in H. F. Jenks, Historical 
Sketch of the Boston Latin School (preface to the School Catalogue, Boston, 
1886), 35-37. 



FAMILY AND CHILDHOOD 7 

called Clarke's Introduction. In the fourth year, the fourth 
form, as well as the fifth and sixth, being furnished with desks, 
commenced "making Latin," as the phrase was, and to the 
books used by the third form Caesar's Commentaries were 
added. After this were read in succession by the three upper 
classes, Tully's Orations, the first books of the Aeneid, and the 
highest classes dipped into Xenophon and Homer. School 
opened at 7 in summer and 8 in winter, a.m., and at 1 p.m. 
throughout the year. It was ended at 11 a.m. and 5 p.m., at 
which hours the greater part went to writing school for an hour 
at a time — but a portion remained and took lessons in writing 
of "Master James," son of the Preceptor, and some young girls 
then came into school. 

The discipline of the School was strict but not severe. The 
Master's — Old Gaffer, as we called him — desk was near the 
south-west corner of the room; Master James's desk was in the 
north-east corner. I remember to have seen no other instrument 
of punishment but the ferule in Master Lovell's day. Gaffer's 
ferule was a short, stubbed, greasy-looking article, which, when 
not in use, served him as a stick of sugar candy. The lightest 
punishment was one clap, the severest four — the most usual, 
two, one on each hand. The inflictions of the old gentleman were 
not much dreaded; his ferule seemed to be a mere continuation 
of his arm, of which the center of motion was the shoulder. It 
descended altogether with a whack, and there was the end of it, 
after blowing the fingers. But Master James's fashion of wield- 
ing his weapon was another affair. He had a gymnastic style of 
flourishing altogether unique — a mode of administering our 
experimentum ferules that was absolutely terrific. He never 
punished in Gaffer's presence, but whenever the old gentleman 
withdrew, all began to contemplate the "day's disaster," and 
to tremble, not when he "frown'd," for he did not frown, nor 
was he an ill-tempered person, but rather smiled sardonically, 
as if preparing for a pugilistic effort, and the execution as nearly 
resembled the motion of a flail in the hands of an expert thrasher 
as could be acquired by long practice. School broke up at 
10 a.m. on Thursday, — a relic of an old custom to give oppor- 
tunity to attend the " Thursday lecture " — which was I believe 
never improved in my day. School opened with "attendamus" 
to a short prayer. It ended with "deponite libros." The boys 



8 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

had a recess of a few minutes to go out in the yard — eight 
at a time. No leave was asked in words; but there was a short 
club of a yard in length which was caught up by some boy, 
round whom those who wished to go out clustered, and were 
drilled down to eight. The club was then held up near Mas- 
ter's nose, who nodded assent, when the eight vanished club in 
hand. Upon their return there was a rush to seize the club 
which was placed by the door, and a new conscription of eight 
formed, and so toties quoties. 

To live in Boston was an education in itself during 
Harry's childhood and youth. The first ten years of his 
life were a period of economic prosperity, when Boston 
Harbor was thronged with vessels from Europe, Africa, 
the West Indies, and the southern colonies. It was, more- 
over, a period decisive in the history of the country. Be- 
tween 1765 and 1775 the struggle between Parliament and 
the colonies passed through all the preliminary stages of 
resistance, compromise, unorganized rebellion, and at- 
tempted punishment, that finally ended in civil war. It 
was a struggle in which Harry's family played an impor- 
tant part from the first. Every argument was threshed 
out in the home circle. The Boston of his boyhood was 
an admirable nursery for statesmen. 

In the year of Harry's birth, both sides of his family 
were in the Whig or opposition party. His grandfather 
Otis was a prominent opposition member of the Council, 
and his uncle James, whose famous speech against the 
writs of assistance had been delivered in 1761, was at the 
very height of his reputation and power as a patriot leader 
in the lower house of the General Court. James Otis, Jr., 
represented Massachusetts at the Stamp Act Congress, 
which met at Albany on October 7, 1765, the day before 
Harry was born; and the following years were the most 
active, if not the most fruitful of his career. Politics 
gradually absorbed his time, to the entire exclusion of his 



FAMILY AND CHILDHOOD 9 

lucrative law practice. He was at the head of every 
measure taken up in legislature or town meeting to op- 
pose the obnoxious acts of Parliament, and in constant 
correspondence with patriot leaders in other colonies. 
But his genius seemed to burn itself out under this stress 
of work, and his nature, ordinarily pleasure-loving, easy- 
going, and genial, became morose, resentful, and irascible. 
As early as 1763, entries in John Adams's diary testify to 
an extravagance of behavior and a violence of temper on 
the part of Otis which can be accounted for only by the 
charitable explanation of mental unsoundness. Towards 
the close of the sixties, these manifestations became more 
frequent. In the autumn of 1769 occurred his fatal alter- 
cation with a government official, in which he received 
a severe cut on the head. This blow permanently unbal- 
anced his reason. With the exception of a few lucid in- 
tervals, the brilliant orator, lawyer, and patriot was never 
again himself. He retired to the country, and in Decem- 
ber, 1771, on representation to the Probate Court that 
James Otis, Jr., was non compos mentis, Harry's father was 
appointed his guardian. 

The insanity of James Otis was a grave loss to the pa- 
triot cause, and a heavy blow to Harry's family circle. 
The example of the elder man was a constant inspiration 
in after years to the youth, who unfortunately did not 
come into contact with his uncle while he was in posses- 
sion of his faculties. 

Another cause of uneasiness in Harry's family was the 
growing Toryism of his grandfather Gray. At the time 
Harry was born, Treasurer Gray was a somewhat shaky 
member of the popular party, but soon afterwards he began 
to gravitate toward the other side. 5 John Adams subse- 

6 Cf. S. E. Morison, "The Property of Harrison Gray, Loyalist," Publica- 
tions of Colonial Society of Mass., xiv. 



10 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

quently ascribed his apostasy to Whiggery to the death, in 
1766, of his political and religious mentor, the Reverend 
Jonathan Mayhew. "Had Mayhew lived, it is believed 
that Gray would never have been a refugee; but the 
seducers prevailed, though he had connected his blood 
with an Otis." The worthy Treasurer was, indeed, fond 
of religious exercise and susceptible to ecclesiastical in- 
fluence, but no particular circumstance is necessary to 
explain his march toward Toryism. Men of means and 
established position, although liberal in their ideas, gen- 
erally take the conservative side when the issue is fairly 
joined between rebellion and loyalty. Self-interest would 
have led Harrison Gray to remain a Whig, for his 
tenure of office was dependent on the popularly elected 
General Court. But the natural feelings of the wealthy 
merchant asserted themselves. He believed that Parlia- 
ment had conceded enough in repealing the Stamp Act; 
and, abhorring the boycotts, riots, and other illegal 
methods employed by the patriots, he had no wish to 
make an issue out of the tax on tea. 

Until the time came when there was no middle ground, 
Harrison Gray was a moderate Tory, and managed to 
retain his position of Treasurer by advancing to impe- 
cunious patriots in the General Court their salaries out 
of his own pocket, when the treasury was empty. But in 
1774 came an event that forced him to choose irrevocably 
between patriotism and loyalism. Among the five coer- 
cive measures of that year by which Parliament intended 
to punish rebellious Boston for its mobs and tea parties, 
was the Massachusetts Government Act, suspending the 
Province Charter, and providing that the Council should 
henceforth be appointed by the Governor on a legal writ 
of mandamus. 6 Harrison Gray's name appeared sixth on 

6 By the Province Charter, the Council was annually chosen by the whole 
legislature, and subject to the veto only of the Governor. 



FAMILY AND CHILDHOOD 11 

the list of Governor Gage's mandamus Councillors. Against 
the advice and persuasion of most of his friends, he ac- 
cepted the call, and thus recognized the right of King and 
Parliament to suspend at will the rights and liberties of 
Massachusetts Bay. The immediate consequences of his 
action were estrangement from most of his friends, loss of 
his position, and unwelcome attentions from the mob; 
the final consequences were confiscation of his property 
and a permanent separation from friends and country. 

The fact that Grandfather Gray became a loyalist had 
an important effect on the mind of young Harry. He 
heard both sides of the great questions of the day dis- 
cussed in the family circle. In after years he could testify 
from personal conviction that it was possible to be 
at the same time a loyalist and an honest man, and that 
the relentless persecution of the loyalists both during and 
after the Revolution, was unjust. The full import of the 
Treasurer's acceptance of the King's mandamus, of course 
was not realized at the time either by Harry or by his 
parents. For the present he knew only that Grandfather 
Gray had become the object of popular opprobrium, and 
was no longer on speaking terms with Grandfather Otis. 

The Otis family, who had quite as much at stake as 
Treasurer Gray, remained true to the patriot cause while 
the latter was treading the road that led to exile. Colonel 
Otis in 1770 renewed his active opposition in the Council, 
his election to which had been vetoed by Governor Ber- 
nard since 1766. In 1774, though seventy-two years of 
age, he was chosen President of the Council in the revo- 
lutionary Provincial Congress, at Watertown, one of the 
first of whose acts was to order the people of Massachu- 
setts to cease paying taxes to Treasurer Gray. Harry's 
father was in close business and personal relations with 
the Adamses, Warrens, and Gerrys, but he did not take 



12 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

an active part in politics until after the Revolution broke 
out. 

Meanwhile another member of the Otis family, Harry's 
"Aunt Warren," 7 was rising into fame as the poetess 
laureate of the patriot party. Mercy Otis, married in 
1754 to James Warren, a wealthy farmer of Plymouth, 
led the humdrum life of a New England housewife down 
to the exciting period of the Tea Party. Her husband then 
became a prominent member of the General Court and 
the Caucus Club, and Mercy blossomed forth as afemme 
'politique. With heart and soul in the patriot cause, she 
applied her pen in its aid — a proceeding that other and 
less gifted patriots' wives believed highly unbecoming to 
her sex. In 1774 she published a satirical poem on the 
Tea Party, entitled "The Squabble of the Sea-nymphs," 
and a more serious poem, "A Political Reverie," in which 
she looks 

". . . with rapture at the distant dawn 



When Patriot States in laurel crowns may rise, 
And ancient kingdoms greet them as allies." 

In May, 1775, began the issue, in parts, of her "Group," 
a dramatic satire on the Tory Party that gave keen de- 
light to the patriots. Though not deficient in her duties 
as wife and mother, Mercy took an Amazonian delight 
in the political arena, and all through the war advised her 
husband on political matters, corresponded with states- 
men, and shot barbed shafts of satire into the enemy's 
flank. 

This year 1775 brought Harry to his tenth year, when he 
could observe and understand much concerning the great 

7 Down to a period within the memory of persona now living, American 
children never addressed their aunts and uncles by their Christian names. Otis 
always referred to Mercy Warren as "Aunt Warren." 



FAMILY AND CHILDHOOD 13 

events that were taking place in his native town. He al- 
ways retained a vivid remembrance of the historic 19th 
of April, 1775. A part of the British soldiery was quartered 
in the Lechmere distillery, at the corner of Hancock and 
Cambridge Streets, not far from his parents' residence. 
The evening of the 18th was unusually hot for that season 
of the year. A general uneasiness was apparent in the 
streets; citizens conversed in low tones in groups of two 
or three; and a careful watch was kept on the movements 
of the troops. In the middle of the night Harry was 
taken from his bed and brought to the window, where, 
through the mist hanging over the pasture before his 
door, he saw the British regulars marching silently along 
on their way to Lexington and Concord. The following 
day, to quote his own words, 8 "I went to school for the 
last time. In the morning, about seven, Percy's brigade 
was drawn up, extending from Scollay's building thro' 
Tremont Street nearly to the bottom of the Mall, pre- 
paring to take up their march for Lexington. A corporal 
came up to me as I was going to school, and turned me off 
to pass down Court St. which I did, and came up School 
St. to the School-house. It may well be imagined that 
great agitation prevailed, the British line being drawn up 
only a few yards from the School-house door. As I en- 
tered the school, I heard the announcement of deponite 
libros, and ran home for fear of the regulars." 

News of the Concord fight brought thousands of armed 
country people swarming around Boston, until it became 
apparent that the town would be besieged, in order to 
force out General Gage and his troops. Harry's father 
decided to follow the example of many patriot families, 
and remove his family before it became too late. The Otis 
homestead at Barnstable offered a convenient refuge. In 

8 Letter cited above, in Catalogue of the Boston Latin School, 37. 



14 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

the second week of May, 1775, Harry and his mother, bid- 
ding good-bye to Grandfather Gray and the Gray uncles 
and aunts, set out in the family chaise for the Great 
Marshes. Samuel A. Otis followed by sea with part of the 
household goods. It was the final parting of the ways for 
the Otis and Gray families : a separation that lasted the rest 
of their lives. Luckily for Harry, his father remained true 
to the cause which his uncle James had done so much to 
create. That cause must have seemed desperate enough 
in May, 1775, to an intelligent man who could compare the 
resources of Great Britain with those of the thirteen colo- 
nies. But the father's choice meant for Harry an oppor- 
tunity for distinguished public service in a republican 
state, while the Gray uncles and cousins, who doubtless 
expected to reap the rewards of loyalty on this side of the 
water, were doomed to a monotonous life of pensioned 
exile at the court in which they had placed their trust. 



CHAPTER II 

BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 
1775-1783, mt. 10-18 

Shortly after the Otis family arrived at Barnstable, 
Harry's mother wrote her father as follows : 

Barnstable, May 1775. 
Hond Sir 

I have only time to inform you, I arrived here this day at 
twelve, and have been treated with the greatest kindness upon 
the Road, every one rejoicing that we have left Boston. The 
Sloop did not arrive here till yesterday; I have not seen Mr. 
Otis yet, he thinks it best not to come on shore, untill he can 
get his goods all out of the vessel, which will be to morrow, the 
children are all well with me, except the Baby, who I have left 
for the present, with her Nurse. I wish you with the rest of my 
dear Friends were out of Town, not that I am apprehensive of 
any danger, except that of starving. I have many things to say, 
but I forbear as I know not whose hands this may fall into, so 
with wishing you all the support of Heaven which is necessary 
at this day of Trial and distress, I conclude 

Your dutiful Daughter E Otis * 

1 This and the subsequent letters from Elizabeth Gray Otis to Harrison 
Gray are taken from copies made by the recipient, and sent by his grand- 
daughter Sophia to her cousin, Harrison Gray Otis, in 1833. He writes in reply, 
on February 17, 1833: "You did me a greater favor than you were aware of in 
sending me the little rubrics of my Grandfather. They have reference to 
scenes impressed on my bosom in childhood, with indelible interest. I was with 
my mother when she wrote those letters, which showed that her heart was be- 
ginning to break as break it did at her separation from her father tho' united to 
a worthy and affectionate husband, whom she loved. Think of her being at a 
place distant only 70 miles from her father, which the mail now reaches in 10 
or 12 hours; with which the intercourse was so interrupted by a civil war, that 
letters were weeks & months in the transit from one place to the other." 



16 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

I Harry looked on the removal to Barnstable as a huge 
lark, not that he was allowed to waste time, for on their 
arrival he was sent to school with Mr. Hilliard, pastor of 
the East Parish. There he passed every week from Mon- 
days to Saturdays, returning to the patriarchal mansion 
for the Sabbath. His progress was satisfactory, at least 
to his mother, for she wrote to his grandfather on January 
8, 1776, "I shall inclose you a letter from Harry of his 
own handwriting as well as of inditing, which will enable 
you to form a Judgment of his Genius which his Tutor 
tells me is very uncommon to say the least.'' Another 
pupil at the same school was Thomas Handasyd Perkins, 
Harry's young friend, whose family, also, had taken re- 
fuge at Barnstable. Colonel Perkins afterwards told 
of the famous times they used to have together: 

In vacation and on Saturday during fishing season we used, 
with my brother James, to go trout fishing in Mashapee and 
Santuit Rivers with great success. We never kept trout much 
under a pound, putting the smaller ones back into the stream. 
Although we were so young, we were allowed to use guns; my 
mother saying that she did not know but that we might be 
called upon some day or other to fight for our country and she 
wished us to understand the use of a gun. Sometimes we joined 
the deer-hunts on the hills, or during the autumn shot flight- 
birds on Barnstable Great Marshes. 2 

For the boys' elders, however, it was a time of much 
anxiety. They had not been in Barnstable long before 
news came of the battle of Bunker Hill, and the burning 
of Charlestown. "This came to us," Otis remembered, 
"not in the shape which it has since assumed, as a real 
victory, though nominal defeat; but with the unmitigated 
horrors of conflagration and massacre, and as a specimen 
of the mode in which our peaceful villages were intended to 

2 A. T. Perkins, Memoir of E. G. Otis, 147. 




ELIZABETH GRAY OTIS 
From a portrait by John Singleton Copley 



THE PARENTS O] 




lRRISON GRAY OTIS 



SAMUEL ALLYNE OTIS 
From a portrait by Gilbert Stuart 



BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 17 

be swept with fire and sword." 3 Barnstable was in'a state 
of perpetual alarm, its militia constantly on the alert, 
since the coast frequently was threatened by British ten- 
ders and privateers. Harry's mother was full of grief at 
the parting from her father and brothers, and of apprehen- 
sion for their welfare in the beleaguered town. So difficult 
were communications between Boston and the outside 
world, that for three whole months in the autumn of 
1775 there came no word from Grandfather Gray. Later 
in the year, however, communication became fairly easy, 
to judge from a letter of Christmas day, 1775, from Mrs. 
Otis to her father: 

If it would not be giving my Papa and Brother too much 
trouble, I should be exceeding glad [if] they would send me out 
a trunk of Apparel I left in the little Chamber, with my beding 
counterpin Curtains and Carpets which may be put in a Trunk. 
I should not have asked this had I not been credibly informed 
Mr Bowdoin has lately got out several large Trunks over the 
Neck and the things I mention are absolutely necessary. I 
need not add I most ardently long to see you, but whether ever 
I shall is known only to him, who orders all things with unerring 
Wisdom. 

We have already felt heavy trials — and are daily expecting 
greater. May Heaven take pity on us, and remove those heavy 
Judgments that are now hanging over us — 'prays your obedient 
Daughr. E O 

The family at the Otis mansion consisted of Harry's 
father and mother, his younger brother Sam, two babies, 
Grandfather Otis, and Harry's uncle Joseph. The last 
two were absent a large part of the time, — the old gentle- 
man being President of the Council at Watertown, and 
Joseph a member of the lower house of the Provincial 
Congress. Early in 1776 they received anunexpected ac- 

8 Letter of H. G. Otis of August 31, 1839, in The Cape Cod Centennial Cele- 
bration at Barnstable (Barnstable, 1840), 74-76. 



18 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

quisition in the person of Mrs. Otis' younger brother, John 
Gray. "Jack," as he was generally called, was a spirited 
young loyalist of twenty, with a faculty for getting into 
trouble. At the beginning of the siege of Boston he sailed 
for England, but not long after, thinking that the rebel- 
lion would soon be over, he reembarked for Boston. His 
vessel was captured by an American privateer, and brought 
to Newburyport, where the boy was thought sufficiently 
dangerous to be put under close confinement. By the in- 
tercession of his Otis relatives, however, the Provincial 
Congress passed an order releasing him into their custody, 
on giving a bond for £1000 not to leave Barnstable or to 
have any dealings with the enemy. Under these condi- 
tions Jack was allowed to join the family at the Great 
Marshes. Since his sister writes "he is in very good spirits, 
and treated like a gentleman," the young loyalist, highly 
pleased with himself and his adventure, was doubtless a 
great source of entertainment to his relatives. 

After the evacuation on March 17, 1776, the Otis 
family returned to Boston, and reopened the house that 
Grandfather Gray had abandoned. It was a different town 
from the Boston they had left ten months before. The 
change was not so much in the outward aspect of the place, 
although, it is true, shot and shells were still scattered 
about, and many houses had been pillaged by the British 
soldiery during the confusion of evacuation. The real 
change that the siege had brought about in Boston was a 
total subversion of the social structure, caused by the 
wholesale emigration of loyalists. When Lord Howe came 
to his sudden decision to retire from the town, the Boston 
Tories saw that they, also, must leave. In the words of 
one loyalist, "neither Hell, Hull nor Halifax" would be 
worse than remaining to face the enraged and victorious 
patriots. For three days confusion reigned, while panic- 



BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 19 

stricken British sympathizers rushed to and fro, trying 
to find corners for themselves and their household goods 
on one of the transports. When they Were all finally em- 
barked, Abigail Adams could look down from Penn's Hill, 
upon the largest fleet ever seen in America, upwards of a 
hundred and seventy sail, ready to set forth for Halifax. 
It was an emigration comparable only to that which 
took place from France sixteen years later. The exodus 
drained the community of some of its most prosperous 
and valuable elements, and left great gaps in the social 
structure that time alone could fill. 4 Among the exiles 
were Harrison Gray and his sons Lewis and Harrison. 
Their absence alone made it a sad home-coming for 
Harry's mother, as her pathetic letters indicate. 

My dear, dear Pappa, [she writes on June 29, 1776], — Al- 
though I see no great probability this will ever reach you, yet 
I cannot let the opportunity pass without a few lines. It 's not 
in the power of words to express how much I have suffered for 
you and the rest of my dear friends since you left Boston, hav- 
ing never received any Intelligence from Halifax, till yester- 
day. A few lines from Mrs Hughes informs me you with my 
Brother and Sister embarked for London May 12th. Hard is 
my fate to be thus separated from the tenderest, the best of 
Parents. . . . You may well suppose the Town wears a gloomy 
appearance to me who has lost so many dear connections. . . . 
I had no other Inducement to return to it, but on account of 
the little folks, who were destitute of Schools when in the 
Country. 

And again, on August 15: 

My dear papa I must entreat, if there is any possible way 
of conveying a line, you would improve it, and tell me 
whether you think there is the least probability of our ever 
meeting again on Earth. I own I sometimes indulge the 

4 The list given in Justin Winsor, Memorial Hist, of Boston, in, 175, of re- 
fugee Boston loyalists contains 536 names, mostly heads of families, and in- 
cluding men of all classes and occupations. 



20 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

pleasing hope, however slender the foundation. As I ever make 
it a rule not to say anything upon political matters, you will 
not expect anything in that way now. I have many things 
to say in the domestic way, but as I know not whose hands 
this may fall into I forbear. . . . 

Your dutiful Daughtr E. O. 

My good partner with the little folks joins me in duty and 
Love. I wish you would not mention anything in the politi- 
cal way, as it may be a means of my not seeing it. 

Harry and his father, on the contrary, adjusted them- 
selves easily to the new conditions. Harry was sent back 
to the Latin School, to prepare for college. With his 
friend Tom Perkins, who also had returned from Barn- 
stable, he often shot snipe at the foot of the Common, 
on the site of the present playground, and went gun- 
ning for teal in a creek near the present site of Dover 
Street. On one memorable occasion they took a trip to 
Barnstable, where, Colonel Perkins relates, "Otis and I 
went out on the marshes to shoot against one another, 
he going to the north toward Sandwich and I keeping to 
the south. At the end of the day I brought in some 
seventy large birds, half of them killed by single shots 
with a gun having but one barrel and a flint lock, and was 
delighted to find I had beaten Harry, who had, however, 
killed but a very few birds less than I had." 

Samuel A. Otis; at this time, resumed his mercantile 
business, in partnership with a Mr. Andrews, and began 
likewise a political career. In May, 1776, he was chosen 
one of the Boston Representatives to the General Court. 
Shortly after, he was appointed to the Massachusetts 
Board of War, together with his brother-in-law James 
Warren, the husband of the redoubtable Mercy. This was 
a responsible position of great importance, for the Board 
of War acted not only as a state executive for military af- 



BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 21 

fairs, but as an intermediary between the state and Con- 
gress. Meanwhile the business of Mr. Otis was thriving. 
^ It is a mistake to suppose that the majority of Americans 
suffered hardship and privation during the Revolution. 
In that contest, as in all wars, large fortunes were made 
out of privateering, speculating, supplying government, 
and contraband trade. The early enthusiasm for home- 
spuns and raspberry tea soon passed away; and from 
1778 on, the demand for luxuries and British goods was 
so great as to make a person of Roman virtues like Mercy 
Warren think that corruption and decay had already en- 
tered the body politic. There is no reason to suppose that 
Mr. Otis shut his eyes to any of these modes of making 
money. 

In November, 1777, Messrs. Otis & Andrews received 
the appointment of Collectors of Clothing for the Conti- 
nental Army. Although, as Mr. Otis acknowledged, 5 "the 
emoluments were considerable," it was an exacting and 
difficult position. The Continental army was in constant 
need of clothing. A sudden order would come for ten 
thousand uniforms to equip Pulaski's Legion, and Messrs. 
Otis & Andrews would first have to procure the materials 
as best they could, then see that the garments were made 
up, and finally forward them to the Clothier-General. 
They wrote Timothy Pickering, the Quartermaster-Gen- 
eral, on July 2, 1778: "We have sent on from the begin- 
ning of Dec. from 16 to 18000 suits of cloathes, besides 
shirts, shoes, Hatts, blankets, &c; . . . for about six 
months we were near £200,000 Lmy in debt on account of 
the United States, during which time, we were perpetu- 
ally embarassed by people calling for their money, & 
much of our time was taken up, in apologizing." 

The varied character of Mr. Otis's business during the 

5 Otis to Timothy Pickering. Pickering MSS. 



22 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

war is revealed in his letters 6 to his brother Joseph, who 
was at once brigadier-general of the militia of Barnstable 
County, country merchant, and member of the local 
committee on clothing. On June 8, 1778, he wrote: 

Dear Brother 

Will procure the 160 hard dollars if I can and write you. Am 
sorry for Weeks 's Misfortune, am indifferent about the Cloth 
but wont refuse it at 10/. 

Have no thots of reducing the price of anything past, future 
reductions is all I have an Idea of. — The melasses cost Andrews 
26/ he refused 40/ declined letting you have it at less 24/ and 
as is riseing you must not think hard of it. You may as well 
keep yourself calm because if you sware as you threaten at this 
distance nobody will mind it. Salt Works Freeman insists on 
managing and we cant honorably decline it tho his political 
fagaries hurt all he is connected with. Have so many Irons in 
the fire dont incline to Speculate at Sea but will sell you the 
Salt. Yours Affectionately, Sam A Otis. 

And on September 10 of the same year: 

Am afraid you will be in too much in a hurry about your 
winter goods, but you may as well make 100 pre as 5 they grow 
exceedingly scarce and will be at 20 for one in a short time yours 
were put at 12 . . . 

As you are a farmer Mr. Andrews & myself will help you to a 
sale of forty bushell good potatoes, 200 head of Cabbages, few 
bushells onions 20 bushell of turnips Carrots & parsnips & 
few onions, or what you can spare of these articles. 

Mrs. Otis desires you would take her in a pail or two of Eggs 
if they come handy. 

We have no News here, but find ourselves alarmed by the 
burning of Dartmouth. Cruel Men! Are these their olive 
branches? 

Mrs. Otis is miserably sick & weak & am very much dis- 
tressed with the apprehension that she w[ill] not recover. 

Give my Duty & Love to all friends, & send namesake 7 home 

8 In the James Otis MSS. (Mass. Historical Society), in. 

7 Harry's brother, Samuel A. Otis, Jr., bora in 1768. He was brought up for 
a mercantile career, and lived at Newburyport until his death in 1814. The 
other children of Samuel A. Otis by his first marriage died in childhood. 



BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 23 

first oppy, and if he is scandalously ragged as I fear he is let the 
shoe maker & Taylor put him in decent kilter. 

The forebodings that Mr. Otis expressed for his wife 
in the last letter were too well founded. The separation 
from her beloved father inflicted on Elizabeth Otis a 
wound from which she never recovered. With gentle sub- 
mission she accepted the course that her husband had 
taken, but as her letters show, she remained a loyalist at 
heart, inwardly protesting against the course of events 
that had placed an insuperable barrier between her hus- 
band's family and her own. There was nothing in the new 
order of things to make up for the friends she had lost. 
Anxiously her husband and children saw depression turn 
into poor health and continual illness. A painful confine- 
ment coming after long months of sickness hastened her 
decline, and on January 22, 1779, she passed away, clasp- 
ing her father's miniature to her breast. She was only 
thirty-two years old, and left five children. "As she lived 
a saint, she died an Angel," wrote her husband to Harri- 
son Gray, who answered: "The tenderness and affection 
you had for my dear child, make you stand high in my 
Estimation, notwithstanding we widely differ in our poli- 
tical principles." 

When the shadow of this calamity fell across his life, 
Harry was thirteen years old, and in his last year at the 
Latin School. The following summer he entered Harvard 
College with the class of 1783, 8 in which his active intel- 
lect and charming personality made him a leader in work 
and in play. In undergraduate debates he showed unmis- 
takable signs of having inherited the oratorical gifts of 
his uncle. He was one of the earliest members of the 

8 The ages of the class of 1783 at entering ranged from eleven to thirty; 
the average was fifteen and a half. See Trienniel Catalogue of 1791, in the 
Boston Athenaeum, containing manuscript notes by President Quincy. 



24 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

Phi Beta Kappa Society, and graduated first in his class. 
But Harry Otis could always be counted upon to take 
part in any sort of mischief. In a letter of his riper years 
he alludes to "our old College practice, of putting a bul- 
let at the end of a whip, and when we passed near a flock 
of geese full speed, of throwing it over the neck of one 
and jerking it into the chaise. When the goose was caught 
he must be roasted and eaten or the sport was spoiled. 
No matter whether fat or lean, goose or gander, down he 
went before Billy Darling's fire." Among his friends and 
associates in this and similar college sports were several 
future politicians and statesmen, such as William Pres- 
cott, Benjamin Pickman, Prentiss Mellen, and John 
Welles of Massachusetts; John Dawson of Virginia; 
Ambrose Spencer and John and Stephen Van Rensselaer 
of New York. 

In an amusing undergraduate letter to the last named, 
Harry expresses his contempt for the sort of instruction 
he was privileged to receive at Cambridge: 

Boston October 20, 1782. 

My dear Stephen, 

* * * *■* * * * * * * 

The Subscription is open for the Assembly : may no unpro- 
pitious Occurence prevent your coming here and enjoying with 
your usual Polish, the Pleasures of this Metropolis; — D[awso]n 
is in Philadelphia: Quiri; if his Eclat is as brilliant as it was 
amongst us Yankees. It is now Vacation and I have a tempo- 
rary Respite from Pedantry and Logic. May Father Time 
ameliorate his tardy Pace and hasten the desired Period, when 
I shall bid adieu to the sophisticated Jargon of a superstitious 
Synod of pension'd Bigots and ramble in the fields of liberal 
science. . . . 

Your affectionate friend 

Harrison Gray Otis. 9 

9 Manuscript Collection of Herbert Foster Otis, Esq. 

( 



BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 25 

A loyal son of Harvard, an authority on the history 
of his alma mater, has assured me that the epithets 
applied by Harry to the faculty of 1782 were none too 
vigorous. The college had fallen a victim to the neglect 
and decay from which every institution of learning must 
suffer during periods of social convulsion and civil war. 
No one then suspected that the greatest intellect in 
Cambridge belonged to a twenty-one year old graduate 
of the University of Geneva, from whom Harry and a 
few of his classmates were permitted by the college 
authorities to take lessons in French. Since Otis read 
and quoted French pretty readily during the rest of 
his life, we may assume that Albert Gallatin was as 
capable a tutor as he afterwards proved to be a states- 
man. 

The class of 1783 received their degrees from President 
Willard not long after the welcome news had arrived that 
war was over, and that all the world recognized the inde- 
pendence of the United States. Otis as the first scholar 
in the class was assigned the English oration. He naturally 
chose the recent event for his theme, and, as he after- 
wards remembered, painted "in somewhat gorgeous colors 
the prospects unfolded to our country by this achieve- 
ment of its liberties, and its probable effect on the des- 
tinies of other nations." 10 It is a pleasant picture to look 
back on, — the black-haired, keen-eyed boy of seventeen, 
pouring forth glowing prophecies of the future, before the 
grave and reverend dignitaries of college, church, and 
state. It was the triumphant end of his boyhood, and the 
beginning of his manhood. He had every advantage a 
youth of his age could ask. Gentle birth, an alert and 
active mind, a winning personality, and the heritage of 

10 Address prepared for Harvard Centennial, 1836. Quincy, History of Har- 
vard University, n, 662. 



26 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

a great name: all were his. Surely no boy was ever 
launched into the battle of life with more brilliant pro- 
spects than Harrison Gray Otis, "the first scholar of the 
first class of a new nation." 



CHAPTER III 

LAW AND BUSINESS 
1783-1796, jot. 18-31 

While at college, young Otis determined to study law. 
The legal profession was the natural one for him to follow; 
for, as we have seen, his grandfather and great-grandfather 
Otis, and his uncle James, had been eminent lawyers in 
their day. During his junior year, it looked as if Harry 
might be initiated into the mysteries of the law by James 
Otis, who had entered one of those lucid intervals that 
lightened the darkness of his later life. With the return 
of his old intellect and brilliancy, he seemed so completely 
restored in reason that the family planned to have him 
take charge of Harry's legal education, and uncle and 
nephew had a long and delightful conversation on the sub- 
ject in the course of a drive from Andover to Boston. But 
James Otis soon lapsed into his previous state, and died 
before Harry left college. Samuel A. Otis then decided 
to give his son the very best legal education that could 
be procured — at the Temple, in London. This plan, 
also, fell through, since shortly after his son's graduation 
the father's business, affected by the general depression 
following the war, became bankrupt. 1 

1 The state of business in 1783 was particularly unfortunate for the affairs 
of men like S. A. Otis, who depended for a livelihood on supplying government, 
and for speculative enterprises to which peace brought an abrupt stop. A con- 
tributing cause of Otis's bankruptcy was the failure of General Joseph Otis of 
Barnstable, £6000 in his brother's debt, after losing by his mismanagement the 
estate left by their father, the Colonel. Whatever the cause, this disaster did 
not injure the reputation of S. A. Otis, for he was elected to the General Court 
for a number of years, chosen speaker of the House in 1784, and appointed 
Secretary of the United States Senate in 1788. He held this position through 
successive administrations, until the day of his death in 1814, without missing, 



28 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

For Harrison Gray Otis, his father's bankruptcy was 
a blessing in disguise. It must have been a rude shock to 
the young favorite of fortune to be thrown on his own re- 
sources at the age of eighteen, but it was just what he 
needed to toughen his character, and develop his self- 
reliance. He was fortunate in being saved from a legal 
education at the Temple. Americans of the upper class 
at the end of the eighteenth century were too much ac- 
customed, as it was, to look to England for everything that 
was good, without receiving the additional bias of an Eng- 
lish education. Nevertheless, young Otis had the best 
legal education afforded by the time and place, through 
the generosity of the eminent lawyer and patriot John 
Lowell, who took him as a pupil into his office without 
charge, out of friendship to the Otis family. An anecdote 
afterwards told by Benjamin Bussey, a merchant of 
Boston, shows how earnestly Otis applied himself to the 
study of law. Every morning on his way to his shop, Mr. 
Bussey saw one of Mr. Lowell's office windows decorated 
by a pair of boots, that evidently belonged to some early 
riser who preferred to read with his heels higher than his 
head. Curious to know how early they occupied that 
position, he arose before daybreak one morning, and, 
passing before Mr. Lowell's office, found the boots posted 
at their usual place. On entering the office, he discov- 
ered, deep in Blackstone, young Harry Otis, who said he 
was simply keeping his usual hours for study. 

In the autumn of 1783, this diligent student was in- 
vited by Mr. Lowell to accompany him on a journey to 
Philadelphia. Recalling this tour in his old age, Otis 
wrote : 2 

it is said, a single session. He married in 1782, Mary (Smith), widow of 
Edward Gray. 

2 Letter of November 10, 1846, to Charles Lowell, in Historical Magazine, 
I, 161. 



LAW AND BUSINESS 29 

This afforded me a better opportunity of seeing him [Lowell] 
in hours of unguarded relaxation from the cares of business than 
afterwards occurred. The whole journey was a continued scene 
of pleasant and instructive conversation, and on his part of kind 
and condescending manners, sparkling anecdotes, and poeti- 
cal quotations. We came to New York before the evacuation 
by the British army was consummated. There Mr. Lowell 
found Col. Upham, aid of Sir Guy Carleton, and Mr. Ward Chip- 
man, judge-advocate, as I recollect, of the British army, — both 
old acquaintances and early companions. Their interview, after 
eight years' separation and various fortunes, was most cordial. 
They introduced Mr. Lowell to Sir Guy, with whom he and 
my other fellow-travellers dined, with a large and splendid 
party of military and civilians, into which they had me worked, 
as an attache to the Boston delegation; and it seemed to me as 
brilliant as Alexander's feast. While in New York, Mr. Lowell 
received the hospitality and attentions of the distinguished 
citizens who had begun to return from exile. In Philadelphia, 
among others, he was waited upon by Mr. Robert Morris, who 
was still in his glory, and regarded in public estimation next 
to Washington, as the man on whose financial exertions had 
depended the success of the Revolution. He entertained us, 
I still hanging as a bob to a kite, at a dinner of thirty persons, 
in a style of magnificence which I had never seen equalled. I 
left him at Philadelphia, and went on an excursion to Balti- 
more for a few days. On my return to Boston, I resumed my 
desk and books in his office. 

After three years' study with Judge Lowell, young Otis 
was recommended by the Suffolk Bar Association, and 
sworn in as an attorney. He borrowed a sum of money 
to buy law books, hired an office, and hung out his shingle. 
His first client was secured by the lucky chance of being 
at home while all the other lawyers were out; others came 
through Mr. Lowell, who turned over to his pupil a part 
of his business in the lower courts. Thus Otis was enabled 
to pay his debts by the end of his first year's practice. 

The year 1786, in which Otis was admitted to the bar, 
was a crisis in the history of Massachusetts. The smoulder- 



30 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

ing discontent of the huge debtor class created by the 
recent hard times flamed out in the western part of the 
state. Shays's Rebellion, as it was called, had begun; 
whole counties were in armed insurrection; the courts 
were forcibly prevented from sitting; local conventions 
were demanding radical alterations in the government: it 
seemed to thinking men as if the "goodly fabric, that eight 
years were spent in raising," was about to be pulled down 
over their heads. With the situation dangerous even to 
Boston, the young men of the town formed a new militia 
company, the "Independent Light Infantry," and chose 
Harrison Gray Otis their captain. When Cambridge was 
threatened by an armed body of insurgents in November, 
the Light Infantry was stationed at the Charles River 
Bridge, prepared for action, while a troop of volunteer 
cavalry dispersed the band, and captured its leader. Al- 
though Boston was saved from attack, the rebellion was 
still in full swing in western Massachusetts, where Daniel 
Shays threatened the Federal arsenal at Springfield. 
Finally the state government, awaking to the seriousness 
of the situation, appointed Benjamin Lincoln commander 
of the state militia, with orders to raise a force to break 
the rebellion. He called at once for volunteers, and Otis 
offered the services of his company in a letter of January 
27, 1787, to Governor Bowdoin: 3 

May it please your Excellency, 

The Independent Lt. Infantry, ready to serve their Country 
& share the Dangers of their fellow Citizens beg leave to tender 
their Services to your Excellency upon ye present occasion, and 
are ready to march at the Shortest notice — & to continue in 
service untill regularly discharg'd. 

Yr Excellency's most obedt Servt 

Harrison G. Otis — Capt. Indt Lt Infantry. 

3 Mass. Archives, clxxxix, 88. 



LAW AND BUSINESS 31 

This letter is endorsed: "Capt Otis will proceed with 
his Company to join General Lincoln and until the junc- 
tion will be under the command of General Brooks." The 
company was sent home, however, after advancing no 
farther than Cambridge, but Otis volunteered his ser- 
vices as aide to General Brooks, and accompanied him 
through the remainder of the bloodless but successful 
campaign. He continued to serve in the state militia 
for a number of years, and in 1789 "The Independent 
Light Infantry, under Major Otis," headed the cortege 
that escorted President Washington into Boston. 

Taking to heart the advice given his father by James 
Otis, Harry made his reputation at the beginning of his 
career. In 1788 he was chosen by the town authorities 
to deliver the annual Fourth of July oration — a singular 
honor for a young man of twenty-three. The oration 
seems labored and bombastic according to our modern 
ideas of eloquence. We feel the "scorching rays of su- 
preme majesty," and the "pestilential breath of a des- 
pot"; the Americans are "elevated, patriotic, godlike," 
etc., etc. Otis was evidently a little ashamed of the effu- 
sion himself, for on sending a copy to his grandfather 
Gray, he remarked that these expressions "are as neces- 
sary for an oration in this Country, as the Lemon juice 
for punch." He seems, however, to have pleased his hear- 
ers, for one of them, John Quincy Adams, by no means an 
easy critic of other persons' performances wrote: "The 
composition and the delivery were much superior even 
to my expectations, which were somewhat sanguine. It 
was greatly superior, in my opinion, to that which he de- 
livered when he took his second degree; the only public 
performance that I had heard before from him." 4 

The bulk of Otis's law practice, at the beginning of his 

* Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc, 2nd ser., xvi, 433. 



32 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

professional career, was derived from the questions of ad- 
miralty and maritime rights that were always coming 
up in Boston. One of the most amusing, if not the most 
important of his cases, was that of Lemon v. Ramsden. 
Captain Clement Lemon, it appears, had so unsavory a 
reputation for drinking at sea, that he secured a ship only 
after signing the following agreement: 

Boston December 31st, 1790 

Be it Known; I Clement Lemon do hereby Agree to, and with, 

Thomas Ramsden of Boston Mercht. that if I am seen or known 

to be disguised with drinking Liquors, or in any wise drunk or 

disorder'd with drinking during the Voyage now bound on from 

Boston to Liverpool in the Brigantine Mary Ann and back to 

Boston — I will forfeit and give up all my Wages or demands 

I may have against the said Thomas Ramsden or Brigantine 

Mary Ann. In Witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand 

and seal this thirty first day of december One thousand seven 

hundred and Ninety. _ _ 

Clemt. Lemon 

Sign'd & seal'd in presence of 

Josiah Bacon. 

But alas, Captain Lemon became very much "disguised 
with drinking Liquors " during the voyage, and the good 
ship Mary Ann meandered all over the North Atlantic 
before it returned to Boston. The captain, nevertheless, 
sued the owner for the full amount of his wages when the 
latter, according to the agreement, refused to pay them. 
Otis was retained as attorney for the defendant, and dur- 
ing the trial produced in evidence of the Captain's con- 
dition the following gem of English composition from the 
mate of the Mary Ann. It is addressed to "Mr Thomas 
Ramsdel Marchant Boston head of the Long Whorf ." 

March 2d 1791 Liverpool 

Sir 

With the utmost Satisfaction I take this opportunity To In 
from you that I have Left your Brig and The Reason there off is 



LAW AND BUSINESS 33 

upon the aCount of the Capting Who has treated me with very 
onsivel [la]ngeage — Nothing but quorling and fighting has 
ben on board Sence we have ben out we got here in 37 Days 
but more by good Luck then good Conduckd and Now had I a 
Long bote I wold not trust him as fare as Castle William in hir. 
I Dont say he gets Drunk but I say that he can grink groge as 
well as my Self nor due I say he Neckglecks his Duty but he 
Loves to Slipe. 

I wish your vesel safe home and I am very glad that you have 
hir Inshured I have no more Sir But am you humble Sarvent 

Daniel Lewis. 

PS Sir 

I wold in from you that the 2 small pigs Died and Capt 
Lemon Lost the Dicsy Line 6 and both Leades out of his hand 
overboard and then took all the Lead of the hase hole when 
there was plenty of bolts and Speaks that wold answer the same 
purpose I say Dam such a fellow that Stoes away Cags of Rum 
on be none 6 to the oner. 

By aid of more direct and grammatical evidence, Otis 
won the case for Mr. Ramsden. 

A scattered practice added more to Otis's reputation 
than to his income, as the following extract from one of 
his letters to Harrison Gray, dated January 14, 1790, 
indicates : 

My business calls me and keeps me so frequently from home 
that I am really able with truth to say that I have hardly had 
time to sit down and write you deliberately since my last. If 
these avocations into the Country were as profitable as they 
are troublesome, you would perhaps be reconciled to my appar- 
ent negligence, but this is far from true. Our profession in this 
Country is not lucrative and I feel already that I am doomd to 
a hard life and scanty fortune. 

One of these journeys, however, took Otis to New York 
in season to witness the first inauguration of a President 
of the United States, on April 30, 1789. The ceremony 

6 Dipsey {i.e., Deep Sea) Line. 6 Unbeknown. 



34 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

was especially interesting to the young man on account 
of the important part taken in it by his father, who had 
just been chosen Secretary of the United States Senate. 
As he stood in the crowd outside Federal Hall, Harry 
could see his father, conspicuous among the impressive 
group on the balcony, bearing on a crimson cushion the 
open Bible on which the President was to take his oath of 
office. As the solemn words of the inaugural oath were 
concluded, Samuel Otis made a motion as if to raise the 
Bible to the President's lips, but Washington gently re- 
strained him, and reverently bowed to kiss the book. The 
scene impressed itself indelibly on Otis's memory; sixty 
years later he wrote: "No one can describe the silent 
tearful ecstacy, which pervaded the myriads who wit- 
nessed that scene; succeeded only by shouts which seemed 
to shake the canopy above them." 7 

Early in the following year, 1790, Otis offered himself 
to a young lady whom he had been courting for some time. 
In a letter that passed between two of his former college 
mates, Timothy Williams and Timothy Bigelow, we get 
an unofficial view of this important event in Otis's life: 

H. G. Otis is to be married in three months to Miss Sally 
Foster — poor girl who has been kept in the twitter of expecta- 
tion these two years by his attention to her, but never received 
an explicit declaration till within a month. In this situation a 
girl must possess uncommon fortitude and virtue not to express 
or degrade herself in a thousand ways to which she is liable — 
court instead of being courted. 

Whatever may have been her feelings, the diffidence of 
young Otis was probably due more to the lack of the 
wherewithal than to lack of courage. Long engagements 
were looked upon askance in those days, and a young man 
was not expected to declare himself until he was capable 

7 Boston Atlas, October 2, 1848. 



LAW AND BUSINESS 35 

of supporting a family. Miss Sally Foster was a beautiful 
and vivacious girl of twenty, five years the junior of her 
fiance. She was the daughter of William Foster, a re- 
spectable Boston merchant who possessed considerable 
wealth, but who had no intention of applying it to supple- 
ment the income of his son-in-law. 

The family correspondence regarding the engagement 
throws a pleasant light on the formalities of the period. 
Mrs. Samuel A. Otis, Harry's stepmother, sent Miss Fos- 
ter this somewhat qualified approbation of the match: 

Mrs. Otis's love to Miss Foster, & cannot refrain from ex- 
pressing the pleasure she feels in the connection which is like 
to take place, & wishes Miss Foster all possible felicity and 
happiness. — Mrs O. intends to do herself the pleasure of 
Personally testifying her approbation of Mr Otis's choice the 
moment she has reciev'd the form of his Father's consent [of] 
which She's persuaded there can be no doubt. 

Mrs O. compliments to Mr & Mrs Foster. 

Tuesday Momg. Jany. 12th. 

If she was led to expect a chilly reception into the Otis 
family by the tone of this letter, Miss Foster was soon 
relieved by a gallant epistle from her future father-in-law : 

New York Jan 24 '90 
Dear Madam 

When an old Gentleman writes to a fine young Lady his first 
care should be to provide an apology. A declaration of Love 
would be worse than none. But dont be alarmed my dear Miss 
Forster, for altho' it must be a cold heart indeed that is not 
half in love with you at least, I shall not make a declaration, 
for many obvious reasons. Love to a very worthy & dutiful 
son I may however declare; Nor will it I hope offend your deli- 
cacy if I add, I am almost jealous too; For I am convinced you 
have engrossed so much of his regard that I must submit to a 
transfer. Give me credit for a little candour if I confess it could 
not in my opinion have been made to a more worthy object; And 



36 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

to whom I should with greater pleasure resign the first place in 
his affections than to, — I had like to have said — my Sally. 
And will Miss Forster permit me at some future time to call 
her so? I have lost an amiable daughter. In my Harry's wife 
I can only hope to recover her. You may rely upon the most 
cordial reception into our family, if you will consent to be- 
come one of us, & because we all love Harry, tis impossible to 
withold our affections from the Lady of his choice, even if it 
was not one, whose "bland accents" & whose "female attrac- 
tions steal the hearts of the wise." I can only promise you a 
continuance of that solicitude for the dear youth, & all that are 
dear to him, which has invariably attended him from his cradle, 
& will I have no doubt, go down with me to my grave; On the 
verge of which, I shall retrospect the pleasing reflection, that 
he is happy in loving & being beloved, by such an one as 
yourself. I should say more on this agreable subject but I fear 
my affectionate heart has already made me too expressive. 
Permit me to present my kind regards to your good Mamma, 
and to entreat her entire approbation of a plan of happiness, on 
which I felicitate at least one family, & to believe me with 
great sincerity and respect, her & 

Your most Humble Sert. 

Sam: A: Otis. 

The young couple were married on May 31, 1790, by 
the Rev. Samuel Parker of Trinity Church. A daughter, 
the first of a family of eleven, was born to them on June 
1, 1791, and christened Elizabeth Gray, after her sainted 
grandmother. The correspondence of Mr. and Mrs. Otis, 
which has been preserved almost entire for the forty-six 
years of their married life, shows that their union w T as ideal. 
Perhaps the secret of its success lay in the fact that Mrs. 
Otis was very like her husband in temperament, and made 
his interests her own; and that he never ceased to be her 
ardent lover, as well as her faithful husband. 

Shortly after his marriage, Otis's name begins to ap- 
pear prominently in the accounts of town-meeting de- 
bates. We find him, together with James Sullivan and 



LAW AND BUSINESS 37 

Dr. Jarvis, arguing in favor of a city charter, at a meeting 
of December 30, 1791. Thirty-one years elapsed before 
this movement bore fruit, but another matter of local dis- 
sension, in which Otis played a prominent role, had more 
immediate consequences. This was the question of the 
legality of theatrical performances. "Stage plays" were 
forbidden by an act of 1750, the repeal of which was now 
demanded by a more enlightened public opinion. Otis 
took at first the contrary side and opposed, at a town meet- 
ing in October, 1791, the adoption of a petition to the 
General Court to repeal the act in question. "So strong 
was his rhetorical power," says Mr. Loring, "that Samuel 
Adams lifted up his hands in ecstacy and thanked God 
that there was one young man willing to step forth in de- 
fence of the good old cause of morality and religion." 
Harrison Gray took the trouble to write his grandson 
from London: 

It affords me great pleasure my child to hear of the Christian 
as well as the political opposition you made to the motion in 
your Town meeting to petition the General Court for the re- 
peal of the Act against plays. If your Legislators have any 
regard for the morality of the people, they will not give the 
least countenance to the Stage, which by the late Doc. Tillot- 
son is called the Devil's Chappel; and which is condemned by 
the primitive church. The Fathers have given their Testimony 
against it; I could quote many extracts from the holy Fathers 
condemning plays, but shall content myself with one from 
Chrysostom, who in his preface to his commentary upon St. 
John's Gospel, speaking of Plays and other public Shews says 
"But what need I branch out, the Lewdness of these spec- 
tacles and be particular in description, for what's there to be 
met with but Lewd laughing, but Smut, railing and buffoon'ry? 
In a word it is all Scandal and confusion. Observe I speak to 
you all. Let none who partake of the holy Table unqualify 
themselves with such mortal Diversions." 



38 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

Although the General Court refused to repeal the pro- 
hibitory act, a company of comedians visited Boston the 
following year, fitted up an old stable with a stage, and 
advertised their performances as "moral lectures." 8 
Thus the situation continued for some time, but on De- 
cember 2, 1792, while the audience was enjoying a moral 
lecture entitled The School for Scandal, a sheriff suddenly 
appeared on the stage and arrested one of the actors. 
The audience became greatly excited, and a party of en- 
raged young men tore down and trampled under foot a 
portrait of Governor Hancock that hung on one of the 
boxes. So great was public interest in the affair that the 
examination of Harper, the arrested actor, was held in 
Faneuil Hall. Otis apparently had changed his opinion 
about the nefariousness of stage plays, for he appeared 
as Harper's counsel, and made a very clever defense on 
technical grounds. He won his case, the actor was dis- 
charged amid loud applause, and thereafter Boston 
was permitted to enjoy the theatre. 

What Harrison Gray thought of this backsliding on the 
part of his grandson in favor of the "Devil's Chappel," 
he was careful to keep to himself, for Otis was at that 
time engaged in the very delicate business of attempting 
to recover some of the Gray property. 9 The old gentle- 
man, now over eighty years of age, supported himself in 
London on an annual pension of £200 from the Crown. 
His property in America had met the same fate as that of 
most loyalists. The General Court had given him the 
compliment of fourth place on a select list of twenty-nine 

8 The advertisement in the Independent Chronicle of November 30, 1792, 
reads, "This Evening will be delivered a Moral Lecture, in five parts, called 
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. . . . End of the Lecture, a Hornpipe. The whole 
will conclude with an entertaining lecture called Love a-la-Mode." 

9 Cf. S. E. Morison, "The Property of Harrison Gray, Loyalist," Publica- 
tions Colonial Soc. of Mass., xrv. 



LAW AND BUSINESS 39 

"Notorious Conspirators," whose estates were confiscated, 
and by the end of the Revolution all his real estate, to 
the value of about £2000 lawful, was long past recovery. 
In addition to this loss, however, there were outstanding 
debts owed to him in Massachusetts to the amount of 
£8036 lawful. Here young Otis was able to effect some- 
thing, although with endless trouble and small profit. 
There were no legal impediments in the way of collection, 
but public opinion was so hostile to the loyalists that few 
juries would give a verdict in their favor. The very fact 
of Otis being retained by Tory clients, if generally 
known, would have been fatal to his political aspirations. 
Altogether it was a very ticklish business, requiring all his 
resources of cleverness and tact. Otis, nevertheless, per- 
sisted in it, out of a sense of justice and family duty, and 
was afterwards able to boast that he saved more from his 
grandfather's fortune than had all the other agents of 
Boston loyalists put together. His usual method, when 
forced to resort to a lawsuit, was to procure an assign- 
ment of the debt from his grandfather to himself, so 
that the jury could not be appealed to on the ground that 
the creditor was an outlawed Tory. 

One item in the list that gave him more trouble than 
all the rest was a debt of £956 165. 5d. sterling due from 
John Hancock. This sum was lent to the patriot leader 
by Treasurer Gray before the Revolution as an advance 
on his salary, when there was no money in the treasury 
to pay it. Otis was obliged to proceed in this case with 
more than ordinary caution. Hancock wielded so great 
an influence in Massachusetts that even the Harvard 
Corporation dared not press him hard for the settlement 
of his long outstanding accounts with the college. If 
Otis went to law, this powerful debtor could easily have 
procured an act from the General Court permitting him 



40 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

to tender the sum to the Commonwealth in paper money; 
he might even have blasted Otis's reputation. During 
four years, from 1789 to Governor Hancock's death in 
1793, Otis wrote him letter after letter, danced attend- 
ance in his waiting-room, received appointments only to 
have them broken on the plea of illness, but never suc- 
ceeded in securing a direct reply, oral or written, to his de- 
mands. "I have taken such unwearied pains with regard 
to this debt for years past," Otis wrote his grandfather 
at one time, "I have experienced such disappointment 
deceit & falsehood, that I have almost despaired of re- 
ceiving a farthing." Finally, in 1795, after both John Han- 
cock and Harrison Gray were dead, Otis recovered two 
thirds of the original debt by a clever move against the 
Governor's widow. She became engaged that year to 
Captain Scott, who commanded a packet ship between 
Boston and England. "As all former arguments had 
failed," Otis wrote Harrison Gray, Jr., "it occurred to 
me that some advantage might arise from the intended 
connection of Mrs. H and Capt 'Scott, especially as an 
idea prevailed of her intention to accompany him to Eng- 
land. I therefore gave intimation, which I knew would 
reach her ears, of a determination to prosecute for the 
debt in England, if Mr. Scott should ever be found there 
after marriage, and this suggestion though it could never 
have been executed, very unexpectedly produced its ef- 
fect, and induced the parties concerned to hearken to 
terms of accommodation." 

Meanwhile, Boston was recovering its ancient prosper- 
ity. The population, which decreased from 15,500 in 
1770 to 10,000 in 1780, owing to the loyalist exodus and 
the hardships of war, rose to 18,000 in 1790, and to 24,000 
in 1800. With commerce and business of every sort ex- 
panding rapidly, Otis was not one to be left behind in 



LAW AND BUSINESS 41 

such a movement. Samuel Breck, in his Recollections, 
gives a pleasant picture of Otis in 1792, toiling away at 
his profession. He borrowed a thousand dollars, it seems, 
from Mr. Breck, and on repaying it, told him that "the 
utmost extent of his desires as to riches was to be worth 
ten thousand dollars," certainly a very moderate ambi- 
tion. "It has pleased God to allow us a very full measure 
of domestic felicity hitherto," Otis wrote in December, 
1792. "We have two fine children, one of each sex; my 
affairs have been prosperous beyond my most sanguine 
expectations, and I have a full share of business." 

When his political career began in 1796, Otis had al- 
ready risen to a leading position in the bar of Suffolk 
County, which, though small in numbers, was rich in 
talents. Such men as Theophilus Parsons, Christopher 
Gore, James and William Sullivan, Samuel Dexter, Wil- 
liam Prescott, Josiah Quincy, and John Lowell, Jr., were 
Otis's brother lawyers and competitors; all but the first 
three were within a few years of his age. Parsons, Dexter, 
and Otis were the acknowledged leaders in the period be- 
tween 1795 and 1815. Each excelled in some one quality: 
Parsons in learning and intellect, Dexter in reasoning 
power, and Otis in eloquence, tact, and personality. It 
would be difficult to say whether his power of graceful 
oratory or his capacity for making every one his friend, 
was his greater asset as a lawyer. The' rich and varied vo- 
cabulary at his command was the despair of his rivals. 
When Chief Justice Shaw heard that Noah Webster was 
about to issue a dictionary containing three thousand 
new words, he exclaimed, "For heaven's sake, don't let 
Otis get hold of it!" 10 

10 N. S. D.'s "Recollections of the Boston Bar," in Historical Magazine 
n. s., vin (1870), 185. Fisher Ames, in his oft-quoted letter on the Suffolk Bar 
in 1800 (JVorks, i, 300), says, "Otis is eager in the chase of fame and wealth, 



42 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

At this period the Boston Bar was composed almost 
exclusively of members of the leading Federalist fami- 
lies, and, owing to the small numbers and the close per- 
sonal friendships that existed among the lawyers and 
the judges, there was an informality about; the procedure 
that would now be impossible. Otis was allowed free rein 
for his oratory, until his friend and colleague Theophilus 
Parsons was elevated to the supreme bench of the Com- 
monwealth in 1806. The new Chief Justice started out 
with the idea of shortening the length of trials, which had 
become a crying abuse. Many were the flowers of elo- 
quence about to blossom from Otis or Lowell or Prescott, 
that his ruthless authority nipped in the bud. A story is 
told of one case, in which Judge Parsons broke in on Otis's 
argument with, "Brother Otis, don't waste your time on 
that point, there is nothing in it." Otis stopped, bowed 
to the bench in a somewhat surprised manner, and went 
on to another point. After a moment : " Nor in this either, 
Brother Otis; don't waste your time." Otis bowed once 
more, and took up a third point, only again to be inter- 
rupted. "I regret to find myself, your Honor, unable to 
please the Court this morning," he remarked with some 
asperity. "Brother Otis," replied the Judge, with his most 
winning smile, "you always please the Court when you 
are right." 

Before he was thirty years old, Otis not only had achieved 
this enviable reputation as a lawyer, but also had laid the 
foundation of his fortune by wise investments in real 
estate. His largest and most profitable venture was the 
purchase of the Copley Pasture in 1795. Early in that 
year he was appointed one of a committee to procure a 

and, with a great deal of eloquence, is really a good lawyer, and improving. He, 
however, sighs for political office — he knows not what; and he will file off the 
moment an opportunity offers." 



LAW AND BUSINESS 43 

site for a new State House in Boston. The committee 
found by far the best situation to be the so-called "Gov- 
ernor's Pasture," near the top of Beacon Hill, and just 
above the Boston Common. This land they purchased 
for the Commonwealth from Governor Hancock's heirs, 
and there the present State House was built. Meanwhile 
Otis had opportunity to observe that the building of the 
State House would give prestige to Beacon Hill, and make 
its southwestern slope, facing the Common and the Back 
Bay, an ideal residential district. The entire slope at that 
time was an upland pasture, encroached upon only by the 
Hancock mansion and one or two wooden dwellings. Ex- 
cept for the Hancock estate, it was the property of John 
Singleton Copley, the celebrated Boston painter. Since 
Copley had resided in England for twenty years, his prop- 
erty was in the hands of an agent, who, on being ap- 
proached by a syndicate formed by Otis, was injudicious 
enough to sign a bond for the sale of the entire Beacon 
Hill estate at the rate of a thousand dollars an acre. 

When he heard of this transaction, Copley disavowed 
his agent's act, refused to execute the deed, and sent his 
son (afterwards Lord Lyndhurst) to Boston in order to 
break the bond. But the future Lord Chancellor of Eng- 
land found that young Mr. Otis had taken care of all the 
technicalities. The contract was binding, and Copley was 
forced to convey the property to Otis et al. for the stipu- 
lated sum of $18,450. But the matter did not end here. 
Since no deeds to Copley could be found, one claimant 
after another came forward during the next fifty years to 
contest the title of the Mount Vernon Proprietors, the 
name under which Otis and his colleagues had incorpo- 
rated themselves. 11 These efforts were unsuccessful, how- 

11 The original purchasers were Otis and Jonathan Mason (each a three- 
tenths interest) and Joseph Woodward and Charles Ward Apthorp (each a two- 



44 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

ever, and the old pasture proved a veritable gold-mine 
for its purchasers. It covered the territory now bounded 
by Beacon Street, Walnut Street, a line drawn diagon- 
ally from Walnut Street to Louisburg Square, Pinckney 
Street, and the Charles River. Originally over eighteen 
acres, this tract amounted to almost as much again when 
the mud-flats at the foot of Beacon Hill were filled in. 
Before Otis died, the whole territory, exclusive of the 
flats, was covered with first-class houses, and the Copley 
Pasture had become, as he foresaw, the fashionable 
residential district of Boston. 

Otis did not confine his speculations to real estate; he 
was interested in one or more of the Western land com- 
panies of the period, and in wild lands in Maine and 
Georgia. By 1796 he had built himself a substantial brick 
dwelling, still standing, on the corner of Cambridge and 
Lynde Streets, and had accumulated considerable prop- 
erty for a young man who eleven years before had none. 
Assured of a steady income sufficient to support his 
family, Otis was ready to enter the field of national 
politics. 

tenths interest). Woodward and Apthorp soon sold out to Benjamin Joy. For 
the whole Copley affair, see articles by "Gleaner" (N. I. Bowditch), reprinted 
in the Fifth Report of the Boston Record Commissioners, 147-171. The Otis pa- 
pers give many additional details. It appears, for instance, that Copley re- 
ceived from the Proprietors almost a thousand guineas in addition to the 
original price, in return for furnishing evidence in regard to his title. 



CHAPTER IV 

A HAMILTONIAN FEDERALIST 
1794-1796, jet. 29-31 

It was in the nature of things inevitable that Harrison 
Gray Otis should take up politics as a profession. He was 
especially fitted for it by heredity, education, and char- 
acter. In New England during the eighteenth century, 
as in Old England, social position and political success 
were almost synonymous. Some one or other of his an- 
cestors had been in public life since 1688, and few families 
in the United States had played a more important part 
in the Revolution than his. Men were inclined to look 
favorably upon him for what his grandfather, father, and 
uncles had done in the great cause of independence. 
Young Otis, moreover, not only inherited the name, but 
the characteristics of his ancestors that win success in 
politics. He possessed the gift of eloquence, which was 
then a far more important factor in a politician's equip- 
ment than it is to-day, and also the very essential quali- 
ties of tactfulness and popularity. However, since in his 
day, as now, a public career was unremunerative to honest 
men, it was necessary for him to provide for the support 
of his family, before he could enter politics. With the 
accomplishment of that task, in 1796, came the op- 
portunity. 

In order to understand Otis's position at the outset of 
his political career, we must glance briefly at the political 
situation in the last decade of the eighteenth century. One 
party, the Tories, had been eliminated from the American 
political system by the Revolution; the triumphant Whig 



46 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

party then split into Federalists and Anti-Federalists on 
the question whether the Constitution of 1787 should or 
should not be adopted. Once the Constitution was rati- 
fied, the Anti-Federalists were eliminated — not, like the 
Tories, by bodily removal from the country, but by re- 
conciliation with the new government. At this stage came 
a new division which the framers of the Constitution, 
in defiance of all human experience, had hoped to avoid. 
The separation was none the less inevitable, for the same 
divergent political tendencies remained in the people 
after 1788 as before. Opposition to the triumphant 
Federal party, developing as Hamilton unfolded his won- 
derful system, found a leader in 1790 in the person of 
Thomas Jefferson, farmer, scientist, diplomat, and phi- 
losopher, fresh from Revolutionary Paris. We may fix 
the date of Jefferson's return — March, 1790 — as the 
birth of the two national parties that occupied the stage 
for the next quarter of a century: the Federal or Feder- 
alist party, 1 under the lead of Hamilton, and the Repub- 
lican or Democratic party 2 under the guidance of Jef- 
ferson. 

To Hamilton's standard flocked the mercantile, non- 
agricultural classes throughout the Union, who were 
interested in a strong and efficient government, sdund 
finance, and a vigorous foreign policy. The principles of 
Federalism appealed also to men who had the common 
sense to see that the country had enjoyed an excess of 

1 Both terms are correct; throughout this work I have employed the former, 
which was more generally used at the time. The official name of the party 
was " Federal Republican." 

2 According to the custom of the time, I have used both terms interchange- 
ably for the party of Jefferson. "Republican" was the term preferred by the 
party itself, as it was implied that the Federalists were monarchists; "Demo- 
cratic," at first a term of opprobrium, was accepted by the Jeffersonians as 
early as 1795. (See Independent Chronicle, May 14, 1795.) The Federalists also 
called the Jeffersonians "Anti-Federalists," but this term is properly applied 
only to the party that opposed the Constitution of 1787. 



A HAMILTONIAN FEDERALIST 47 

liberty; that consolidation and strength were necessary to 
preserve the Union. Jefferson, on the other hand, united 
and typified the agricultural classes, which looked with 
suspicion on financial schemes they did not understand, 
and saw in the Hamiltonian system only an attempt to 
corrupt the government and to pave the way for a mon- 
archy. He also represented the idealists, the theoretical 
democrats of the period, who had sublime faith in the 
fallacious theory of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, that a weak 
and decentralized government was the best safeguard of 
liberty. Persons like Samuel Maclay and Elbridge Gerry, 
who, morbidly suspicious of tyranny, saw indications of 
a deep-laid monarchical plot in Washington's dignified 
aloofness, and in John Adams's love for titles and trap- 
pings, naturally followed Jefferson. 

Many of the differences between the Republicans and 
the Federalists were only those of "Outs" and "Ins," 
and were mutually exchanged after the Republicans had 
tasted the sweets of power, and Federalists the dregs of 
defeat. But there was between them a fundamental cleft 
which was summed up in radically opposite opinions of 
their leaders. As Henry Adams has said in his Life of 
Gallatin: "Mr. Jefferson meant that the American System 
should be a democracy, and he would rather have let the k 
world perish than that this principle, which to him repre- 
sented all that man was worth, should fail. Mr. Hamil- 
ton considered democracy a fatal curse, and meant to 
stop its progress." 3 

Federalism made its widest appeal in the more thickly 
settled parts of the country, along the seacoast and navi- 
gable rivers, where commerce took precedence over agri- 
culture, and the wealthy classes had long been in control 
of politics. The strength of Republicanism lay in the more 

8 Life of Gallatin, 159. 



48 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

remote agricultural country, and it spread with the west- 
ern advance of the frontier. Massachusetts from the first 
was a stronghold of the Federal party, owing to the pre- 
valence of commercial interests in the eastern half of the 
state, and to the conservative reaction that set in after 
Shays's Rebellion. 4 Both parties, however, united in the 
support of John Hancock for Governor until his death in 
1793, and of Samuel Adams until 1796. The Federalists 
generally controlled the state legislature, and their nomi- 
nees were elected from 1790 to 1794 in all districts ex- 
cept Hampshire County (the old stamping ground of 
Shaysism), Middlesex County (in 1794), and the Cape. 
James Bowdoin, Fisher Ames, Theodore Sedgwick, and 
Samuel Dexter were at this period the most popular lead- 
ers of Massachusetts Federalism. But from the first there 
stood out from its ranks a clearly defined group which 
often dominated it, and which maintained its importance 
as long as the party existed. This was the famous Essex 
Junto. It was composed chiefly of hard-headed merchants 
and lawyers of Essex County, where mercantile and mari- 
time interests were even stronger than in Boston. Stephen 
Higginson, George Cabot, and Theophilus Parsons were 
its earliest leaders; Timothy Pickering was an influential 
member, even when absent from Massachusetts, and a few 
Boston Federalists, such as Fisher Ames, Timothy Bige- 
low, Christopher Gore, and John Lowell, Jr., afterwards 
became identified with the group. This Essex Junto, the 
ultra-conservative and ultra-sectional wing of the party, 
refused all compromise with democracy, distrusted the 
French Revolution from the very start, failed entirely 
to sympathise with the South and West, and, in short, 
was blind to the fact that the world had moved forward 
since 1775 and 1789. Otis happily characterized the 

4 A. E. Morse, The Federalist Party in Massachusetts to 1800. 



A HAMILTONIAN FEDERALIST 49 

group when he wrote Josiah Quincy, in 1811: "There is 
not one of these sworn brothers who is, or ever was, a 
politician, or who ever had what old John Adams calls the 
tact of the feelings and passions of mankind; but they 
are men of probity, of talent, of influence, and the Federal 
party may say of them, Non possum vivere sine te nee 
cum te!" 5 

Otis naturally joined the Federal party. He had seen 
with his own eyes, in Shays's Rebellion, the dangers of a 
minimum of government and an excess of democracy. 
His professional and business connections with the mer- 
cantile classes in a great mercantile centre made it to his 
interest that the finances of the country should be on a 
sound basis. His appointment, in 1796, as a director of the 
Boston branch of the United States Bank further identi- 
fied him with the interests which formed the backbone 
of the Federal party. Most important of all, he was by 
birth a member of the native aristocracy. In the Revolu- 
tion the larger portion of that class was Tory; but families 
like the Otises who joined the patriot cause abandoned 
none of their conservative principles. They had fought 
for independence from Great Britain, not independence 
from government and social restraint, and consequently 
they expected the wheels of democratic evolution to stand 
still in 1783. "You and I did not imagine, when the first 
war with Britain was over, that revolution was just be- 
gun," Otis wrote an old friend, half a century later. Young 
Copley, the future Lord Lyndhurst, wrote from Boston 
in 1796: "The better people are all aristocrats. My father 
is too rank a Jacobin to live among them." 

The two great parties crystallized on the question of 
the nation's attitude toward the struggle between Re- 
volutionary France and the rest of Europe: the Federal- 

B Edmund Quincy, Life of Josiah Quincy, 242. 



50 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

ists became zealous champions of England; the Republi- 
cans, of France. In 1793 the issue was first squarely pre- 
sented, by the announcement that war had broken out 
between Great Britain and the French Republic, and that 
Citoyen Genet, minister of the French Republic to the 
United States, intended to use this country as a French 
naval base against England. President Washington, in 
his famous proclamation of April 23, 1793, met the situa- 
tion by a declaration of neutrality, and a refusal to permit 
either belligerent to use United States ports as bases for 
privateering. Later in the year came the news that both 
England and France, at the outset of the struggle, had 
issued severe and illegal edicts, subjecting to capture and 
spoliation the neutral commerce of the United States. 
This problem of foreign relations remained unsolved 
until the close of the War of 1812 and of the Napoleonic 
epoch. 

Washington's policy of neutrality was entirely distaste- 
ful to the Republicans, and satisfied the Federalists only 
for a brief period. Jefferson's party let itself be carried 
away by its enthusiasm for the militant French Republic, 
and made the cause of Citoyen Genet its own. Within a 
week of his arrival at Philadelphia the Democratic Club 
was founded, on the model of the Jacobin Club of Paris, 
and like the parent institution it helped to form a chain 
of clubs throughout the Union. These societies carried on 
a lively abuse of Washington for his neutrality policy, 
denounced the Federalists as hirelings of Britain, and by 
intimidating judges thwarted the administration in its 
attempt to preserve neutrality. The "Constitutional 
Club" in Boston encouraged the French consul to defy 
a United States marshal, and even instigated the frigate 
La Concorde to a piratical attack on a merchant vessel 
owned by Federalists, j 



A HAMILTONIAN FEDERALIST 51 

Conduct such as this, added to the course of the French 
Revolution itself, and their close mercantile relations with 
England, drove the Federalists into as strong sympathy 
with Great Britain as the Republicans expressed for 
France. In the earlier phases of the French Revolution the 
Federalists yielded nothing to the Republicans in their 
enthusiasm for this great movement. It was considered 
a triumph of American revolutionary principles; the of- 
ficers who had fought for the colonies were among its 
leaders; Valmy and Jemappes were hailed as another 
Bunker Hill or Saratoga. But when Louis XVI, the friend 
of America, was executed, when the Reign of Terror com- 
menced, when property, religion, and morals were no 
longer respected, conservatives felt that the very bases 
of society were threatened. The manifestations of Dem- 
ocratic clubs on this side of the water, and the Whiskey 
Rebellion in Pennsylvania, which Washington himself 
attributed to their influence, made the Federalists believe 
that similar excesses were possible in this country. J0tis 
thus expressed the sense of his party in a letter to his wife : 
"Should Great Britain be compelled to yield, it is my 
opinion that our liberties and independence would fall a 
sacrifice. She is the only barrier to the dreadful deluge, 
and when that is broken down, it will be time for us to 
prepare to be good and dutiful subjects to the French." 
On the other side, a Republican newspaper of Boston 
announced, and doubtless believed, that: "If Britain is 
victorious, the United States will be as a Republic an- 
nihilated." 6 

In like manner foreign events and foreign issues con- 
tinued to dominate American politics, until the War of 
1812 brought an end to this political and intellectual 
thralldom. The settled and influential portion of the 

6 Independent Chronicle, October 27, 1796. 



52 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

United States was far nearer to Europe in thought than 
to its own hinterland, and was overpowered by the immen- 
sity of the European struggle. Federalists and Republi- 
cans alike believed that their country's fate depended 
on the issue of events across the Atlantic. The newspapers 
devoted the greater part of their space to foreign news, 
and much of the remainder to pithy applications of it to 
home politics. French ministers interfered in presidential 
elections, and Federalist leaders unbosomed their plans to 
envoys of Great Britain. Politically and intellectually, 
the American people until 1815 were in the colonial epoch; 
their politics were but a shadow of the great drama across 
the Atlantic. 

Although Otis was not able to devote his entire time 
to politics before 1796, he took part in contests with the 
local Democracy for several years previous. Boston was 
always a Federalist town. The lawyers and merchants 
almost without exception belonged to that party, and as 
many of them had been popular leaders in the Revolution, 
they carried a majority of the people with them. Boston 
was strongly in favor of the ratification of the Constitu- 
tion in 1788, and, when the issue was drawn between 
Hamilton and Jefferson, elected to Congress Fisher Ames, 
one of Hamilton's closest friends and allies. The local 
Democracy, however, made up in noise and activity 
what it lacked in strength. It possessed, in Dr. Charles 
Jarvis, a member of Otis's class of society, and in Ben- 
jamin Austin, a ropemaker, whose rabid essays over the 
signature "Honestus" were much dreaded, two leaders 
of great ability. 

Otis was instrumental in preventing the town from 
falling into Democratic hands on a memorable occasion 
in 1794. The Federal party that year was much em- 
barrassed by the policy of Great Britain toward the 



A HAMILTONIAN FEDERALIST 53 

United States. The British government continued to 
hold its Western posts, now in American territory, and 
British privateers and prize courts were sweeping Amer- 
ican commerce from the seas. James Madison, the Re- 
publican leader in Congress, introduced seven resolutions 
on January 3, 1794, providing for retaliation on British 
commerce. This plan did not meet the ideas of the sea- 
board merchants who controlled the Federal party. Since 
about seven eighths of their trade was with Great Britain, 
they preferred to enjoy it on her terms rather than risk 
losing the whole by retaliation, — an attitude that they 
steadily maintained for the next twenty years. The 
excitement in Boston over Madison's resolutions was in- 
tense. Jarvis and Austin, reviving a custom of Revolu- 
tionary days, called a town meeting "to take the sense of 
the inhabitants." They hoped, by playing on the old 
hatred of England, to overrule the mercantile interests, 
and procure resolutions requesting the Massachusetts 
Congressmen to support Madison; they very nearly suc- 
ceeded. The town meeting, begun at ten in the morning 
of February 24, adjourned, owing to the crowd, from Fan- 
euil Hall to the Old South at three, lasted there until after 
dark, and adjourned until the next day. Only at one in 
the afternoon of the 25th did the Federalists succeed in 
wearing out their opponents, and in securing an indefinite 
postponement of the whole matter. After the affair was 
over the Centinel remarked, "We cannot omit mentioning 
in a particular manner, Mr. Otis, who took a conspicuous 
part in the course of the debate, in opposition to the Re- 
port. His fellow citizens did justice to his abilities, and 
eloquence"; and Christopher Gore wrote Senator King of 
New York, " It is said that we owe very much to Eustis, 
Jones & Codman and Lyman. Otis also took a decided 
part and greatly aided the cause of good government & 



54 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

order." 7 Although this is the first recorded instance of 
Otis's entering the political arena, the language of both 
reporters indicates that it was not his first performance. 

In recognition, doubtless, of his part in this exhausting 
contest, Otis was given in 1794 and 1795 a place on the 
Federalist ticket for the "Boston Seat," i.e., the town's 
quota of Representatives in the General Court. On both 
occasions the Federalist ticket was defeated. This result, 
also, was due mainly to the influence of foreign affairs. 
Between the town meeting of February 24 and the State 
elections in May, 1794, news arrived of a fresh British 
decree against neutral commerce, even more outrageous 
than the previous ones, and of Lord Dorchester's inflam- 
matory speech to the Indians of the Northwest. The 
Federalists, for refusing to take retaliatory measures 
against Great Britain earlier in the year, were naturally 
discredited. 

Meanwhile, President Washington had averted almost 
certain war by sending John Jay to London. All was 
suspense until the result of his negotiation should be 
heard. Otis described the situation in a letter of Novem- 
ber 15, 1794, to his uncle, Harrison Gray, Jr. : 

We have just passed through the turbulent period of the 
election of members for Congress. Strenuous exertions have 
been made by the anti-federal faction throughout the Union, 
but generally without success. Mr. Ames is reelected here, and 
the Friends to peace and good order are greatly encouraged by 
the appearance of our public affairs. Much however you are 
sensible depends on Great Britain. The moderate and respect- 
able part of the Community wait with patience and anxiety the 
result of Mr. Jay's mission; but should justice be denied to our 
claims, I think a very general sentiment of indignation & spirit 
of resentment will prevail here among all classes of people & 
produce a rupture between the countries. 

7 C. R. King, Life and Correspondence of Rufus King, i, 547. 



A HAMILTONIAN FEDERALIST 55 

In July, 1795, the text of Jay's treaty was made public, 
and, as Henry Adams has said, "threw a sword into the 
body politic." A howl of rage followed the news through 
the country, and effigies of John Jay went up in smoke 
all the way from Maine to Georgia. The treaty was in- 
deed humiliating, and all parties at first united in con- 
demning it. At a crowded town meeting in Faneuil Hall 
on July 10, not a single vote was registered in its favor. 
George Cabot, of the Essex Junto, was willing to swallow 
the treaty whole, but he had to attend Harvard Commence- 
ment to find sympathizers. 8 Gradually, however, the con- 
servative elements came to see that Jay's treaty was bet- 
ter than none, and that the only alternative to accepting 
it was war. When Washington finally signed the agree- 
ment, without the objectionable article forbidding the 
United States to export molasses or cotton, the Federal 
party to a man approved. 

But the last chance to defeat the Jay Treaty had not 
expired. The House of Representatives, through its power 
to defeat the necessary appropriations to carry it into ef- 
fect, held a veto over the treaty; and under the lead of 
Edward Livingston and Gallatin, a determined effort 
was made by the Republicans to exercise this preroga- 
tive. The Boston Federalists, seeing another crisis at 
hand, called a town meeting for April 25, 1796. Dr. Jar- 
vis, the Democratic leader, opened the debate. Then 
Otis made such a speech that it seemed "a new and fright- 
ful planet blazed through the darkness, and dispelled the 
clouds." At his conclusion Bishop Cheverus, the gifted 
Catholic prelate, "threw his arms around Otis, and while 
tears were streaming down his cheeks, exclaimed : ' Future 
Generations, young man, will rise up and call thee 
blessed!'" 9 Such is the traditional account of Otis's 

8 H. C. Lodge, Life of George Cabot, 80. » Loring, 308. 



56 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

speech. Unfortunately the only contemporary report of 
it is in the Independent Chronicle, which, as a leading 
opposition journal, attempted to depreciate the "new 
and frightful planet." According to its account, Otis be- 
gan by painting the horrors of the war that would be 
necessary to drive the British forces from the Western 
posts if the treaty was blocked — the same line of argu- 
ment followed by Fisher Ames in his celebrated oration 
three days later. After a rejoinder by Benjamin Austin, 
and a general discussion, "Mr. Otis concluded the de- 
bate," to quote from the Chronicle, "by a very pathetic 
eulogy on the President, and a very illiberal reflection 
on Mr. Gallatin, who Mr. Otis said was the leader of 
the majority in Congress. Shall we (said Mr. O.) join a 
vagrant foreigner in opposition to a Washington; a for- 
eigner who to his knowledge ten years ago came to this 
Country without a second shirt to his bach? A man who 
in comparison to Washington is like a Satyre to a Hype- 
nan? 

No doubt Otis's attack on Gallatin was delivered in 
rather vigorous language, for in those days gentlemen 
seldom permitted the amenities of private intercourse to 
dull the acerbity of political controversy. Gallatin, more- 
over, was regarded by Federalists as a low foreign-born 
adventurer, the instigator of the Whiskey Insurrection, 
and the connecting link between the American and 
French Jacobins. 

"Bold convicts lend their aid in every state, 
Genevan Albert and Hibernian Mat" — 

runs a bad verse in the Jacobiniad, in reference to Galla- 
tin and Lyon. Still, we are glad to find that Otis was a 
little ashamed of his reflection on the size of his old tutor's 
wardrobe, and had the courage to risk his party's disappro- 



A HAMILTONIAN FEDERALIST 57 

bation by apologizing to Gallatin after they had met in 
Philadelphia. 10 

Otis's "Second Shirt Speech," as his effusion was called, 
was widely commented on by newspapers of both parties. 
Immediately after its conclusion, a vote of confidence in 
Washington's administration had been proposed, and 
carried by a vote of about 2400 to 100. This was a per- 
sonal triumph for Otis; he had met Democracy in its 
citadel, the assembly of the people, and had conquered it 
by his eloquence. Immediate recognition came from his 
party; on May 26, 1796, the President commissioned 
him United States District Attorney for Massachusetts. 
Having higher objects in view, Otis refused to accept this 
appointment, but consented to act under it temporarily 
until a successor could be procured. 

The eloquence of this speech was not wholly respon- 
sible, however, for the change of sentiment in Boston. 
The same phenomenon was taking place throughout Mas- 
sachusetts. In response to a circular letter of the Feder- 
alist leaders in Boston, almost every town in the. state 
memorialized Congress to carry out Jay's treaty. This 
notable increase in Federalist strength was due partly 
to a conservative reaction against the excesses of Demo- 
cratic clubs and mobs; partly to the efforts of the ortho- 
dox clergy, who for two years had been preaching Feder- 
alism in and out of the pulpit. In the spring elections to 
the General Court, the Federalists regained their hold on 
Boston. Otis and the entire Federalist ticket were elected 
to the House of Representatives by a strong majority. 

The next autumn came Otis's opportunity for further 
advancement. Fisher Ames, who had represented the 
First Middle (Suffolk) District in the first four Con- 
gresses, decided to withdraw from politics, and regarded 

10 Chronicle, July 27 and August 3, 1797. Cf. below, p. 77. 



58 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

Otis as his most promising successor. The Centinel an- 
nounced on November 2 : "The Federalists are determined 
to be united on Hon. Tho: Dawes for an elector, and Harri- 
son G. Otis for a Representative. They give this early 
information that our brethren in the middle district may 
know unequivocally who are considered in the capital as 
real Federal characters." In behalf of James Bowdoin, 
the opposition candidate, Otis was attacked in the Chron- 
icle for his "Second Shirt Speech" on Gallatin, and ac- 
cused of being "a mere Automaton of funds, banks, and 
land-jobbing speculators." But on November 7, 1796, 
when Massachusetts as a whole cast her ballot for John 
Adams for President, the First Middle District elected 
Harrison Gray Otis to Congress, by a substantial 
majority. 11 

11 This district included *Boston, Roxbury, Dorchester, Dedham, *Weston, 
*Brookline, *Newton, *Needham, *Natick, *Sherburne, Hopkinton, Holliston, 
Sharon, *East Sudbury, Medway. Those marked * gave Otis a majority: In 
the Chronicle for November 10 appeared accusations that over four hundred 
of the votes for Otis were given by "British residents, refugees, etc."; but 
these charges were successfully refuted. A. E. Morse, Fed. Party, 163. 



CHAPTER V 

THE FRENCH PERIL 
1796-1798, Ms. 31-33 

Otis's congressional career, from 1797 to 1801, covered 
a period when the neutrality and the independence of the 
United States were threatened by the American policy of 
the French Republic. Nineteen twentieths of the congres- 
sional business during this period concerned directly or 
indirectly our French relations. It will be necessary, there- 
fore, to enter into the policy and aims of France in order 
to understand the attitude of Otis, as a Federalist Con- 
gressman. 

From the date of the publication of Jay's treaty with 
Great Britain, relations between the United States and 
France went from bad to worse. That agreement was a 
blow to French influence in the United States, since it 
gave England privileges to which France considered her- 
self alone entitled by virtue of the treaty of alliance of 
1778, and it violated in several respects the French con- 
struction of that document. The principal French objec- 
tion to the Jay Treaty, however, was that it settled dif- 
ficulties between the United States and England which 
the French Republic counted upon to produce hostilities. 
Protests and threats having failed to prevent its ratifi- 
cation by the Senate, France attempted coercion of the 
United States through commerce-destroying. Beginning 
in July, 1796, the Directory promulgated a series of out- 
rageous decrees against neutral commerce; and under 
their authority French privateers began to capture, and 



60 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

French prize courts to condemn, every American vessel 
bound to or from ports in the British Empire. By the 
month of June, 1797, over three hundred captures had 
been made, many of them attended by atrocious cruelty 
to the American crews. 

When these aggressions began, President Washington 
recalled the minister to France, James Monroe, a friend 
of Jefferson who had proved himself incapable of caring 
for American interests, and appointed in his place Charles 
Cotesworth Pinckney, a moderate Federalist of South 
Carolina. But the French Directory took leave of Mon- 
roe with threats and insults, refused to receive his suc- 
cessor until the "grievances" of France were redressed, 
and on February 3, 1797, threatened Pinckney with arrest 
if he remained in Paris. 

As a result of the continued depredations on our com- 
merce, and the threatening attitude of the Directory, 
President Adams summoned the Fifth Congress to a 
special session in the spring of 1797. Otis was present at 
the first quorum, on May 15. Philadelphia was then the 
national capital, and Congress Hall, a plain brick build- 
ing adjoining Independence Hall, was the scene of Otis's 
political activities during the next three years. That por- 
tion occupied by the House of Representatives is unplea- 
santly described by a contemporary as "A room without 
ventilators, more than sufficiently heated by fire, to which 
is superadded the oppressive atmosphere contaminated by 
the breathing and perspiration of a crowded audience." 1 
At its full strength, the House of Representatives num- 
bered one hundred and six members. Among those promi- 
nent in his own party, Otis found the veteran Jonathan 
Dayton of New Jersey, who was elected Speaker, James 

1 Letter of Thomas Pinckney, March 4, 1798, in his Life, by C. C. Pinck- 
ney/ 180. 



THE FRENCH PERIL 61 

A. Bayard of Delaware, Roger Griswold, the future war 
governor of Connecticut, and from the same state Chaun- 
cey Goodrich, future colleague of Otis in the Hartford 
Convention. South Carolina sent a small but most nota- 
ble Federalist delegation, — William Smith of Charleston, 
Robert Goodloe Harper, and John Rutledge, Jr. The two 
last, recent converts to Federalism, embraced, like most 
converts, the most extreme doctrines of their new party. 
Harper, who had already served two terms, was now the 
ablest debater and pamphleteer on the Federalist side of 
the House, and Rutledge, elected in 1796 as a non-parti- 
san, turned Federalist, like many South Carolinians, after 
the insulting rejection of his fellow-citizen Pinckney by 
the Directory. Both were men of Otis's age and tastes; 
they became his lifelong friends, and like him, never de- 
serted the Federal party. 

Prominent among the "Jacobins" 2 in the Fifth Con- 
gress were John Nicholas and William B. Giles, two vet- 
eran parliamentarians from Virginia; Nathaniel Macon 
of North Carolina, serving the fourth of his fifteen terms 
in Congress; Edward Livingston, future lawgiver of Lou- 
isiana, representing his family interests in New York; and 
the ablest man in the House, Otis's old tutor of the single 
shirt, Albert Gallatin, whose Genevan origin was still 
betrayed by his accent. Besides the members affiliated 
with Federalism or Republicanism, there was a handful 
of new and unattached backwoods members, whose sup- 
port was ardently wooed by both sides. 

Otis served in Congress during one of the most intense 
periods of party feeling that the country has ever passed 

2 This term was applied to the Republican party by the Federalists in 1793, 
on account of their opponents' attachment to the cause of the French Revolu- 
tion. It remained in current use until 1815. Jefferson, in retaliation, coined 
several nicknames for the Federalists, such as "Anglomen," "Monocrats," 
etc., which never became popular. 



62 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

through. The principles of the two parties were opposite 
and irreconcilable; the one believed in a government by 
the upper classes, the other, in a government by the people; 
the one feared French influence and democracy, the other, 
monarchical plots and aristocracy. To all this contention 
was added a rigid social cleavage. Members of the two 
parties studiously avoided each other on the street and 
in society : there were Republican taverns and Federalist 
taverns; Republican salons, and Federalist salons. 3 Out- 
side the halls of Congress, party warfare raged in the par- 
tisan press, with a violence and bitterness of language 
that the good taste of a later epoch has proscribed. Ben- 
jamin Franklin Bache was still conducting the Aurora y 
which had spared not even Washington from its torrents 
of abuse and filth, and William Cobbett paid him back in 
kind through the columns of Peter Porcupine's Gazette. 
After Monroe returned from France, his acrimonious 
correspondence with Pickering, and his dishonorable 
disclosure of the Reynolds affair in order to tarnish 
Hamilton's reputation, added more fuel to the flames of 
party hatred. 

The first business before the House was to draw up an 
answer to the President's speech. During the Federalist 
period the President always delivered his opening mes- 
sage in person, and each house went in a body to his resi- 
dence to present a reply. This graceful custom was hap- 
pily done away with by Jefferson, for the framing of a 
suitable reply, in times of high party feeling, wasted sev- 
eral weeks. In this instance, the debate over the Answer 
of the House lasted until June 3. When the Committee 
on the Answer brought before the House a draft that fully 
responded to the President's sentiments, Nicholas of Vir- 
ginia immediately proposed an amendment to it, to the ef- 

3 See chap. ix. 



THE FRENCH PERIL 63 

feet that, "we flatter ourselves that the Government of 
France," by its dismissal of Pinckney, "only intended to 
suspend the ordinary diplomatic intercourse" in favor 
of "extraordinary agencies," and that a disposition 
to remove the inequalities of treaties would produce 
the desired accommodation. In other words, that all 
the demands of the French government should be 
obeyed. 

Words like these made the Federalists' blood boil, and 
precipitated a vigorous debate. Otis, as a new member, 
was not expected to take part, in spite of his reputation for 
eloquence. "His talents will distinguish him," wrote his 
predecessor, Fisher Ames, 4 "and I hope he will be care- 
ful to wait patiently in Congress until they do; but he 
is ardent and ambitious." Such was the case. Young 
Harry Otis, burning with anti-Jacobin fire, refused to 
remain in the background, and on May 23, 1797, just a 
week after the session began, delivered his maiden speech 
on the Nicholas Resolution : 5 

« Works, i, 202. 

B Annals of Fifth Congress, 103-108. In quoting speeches made in Congress, 
I have transposed them, for the sake of clearness, to the first person and the 
present tense. Otherwise no liberties have been taken with the text as given in 
the Annals, and omissions are always indicated. The Annals are the best re-~ 
ports of the debates we have, 'although neither impartial nor accurate. The fol- 
lowing letter of March 29, 1798, from Joseph Gales, the editor, to Otis throws 
light on the method of reporting: 

"Sir: When you presented me with a Five Dollar Note some days ago for 
the extraordinary trouble which you thought I had had on your account, I 
then doubted whether I ought to receive it. It was the first time I had ever been 
offered any money for any thing which I had done in the business of debate 
taking. I now believe I ought not to have received it, and therefore return it, 
that I may not, at the same time that I am charged with Partiality, be charged 
also with Ingratitude. 

"In answer to your Note, I can only say, that I have now an injunction laid 
upon me by my Employers to bring every day's business into one paper. Of 
course, after I come from the house, I have to write an account of the proceed- 
ings of that day before I sleep, or at least before I come to the house next day. 
If you, therefore (or any other member, for I cannot accuse myself of any par- 
tiality) speak very late in the sitting, and when I come to your observations, 



64 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

The present is not an ordinary occasion, and the situation of 
the country requires that the Answer shall not be a spiritless 
expression of civility, but a new edition of the Declaration of 
Independence. . . . For my part, I conceive that all party 
distinctions ought now to cease; and that the House is now 
called by a warning voice, to destroy the idea of a geographical 
division of sentiment and interest existing among the people. 
My constituents and myself are disposed to regard the in- 
habitants of the Southern States as brothers, whose features 
are cast in the same mould, and who have waded through the 
same troubled waters to the shore of liberty and independ- 
ence. . . . 

The injuries sustained by us are of a high and atrocious na- 
ture ... If any man doubts of the pernicious effects of the 
measures of the French nation, ... let him inquire of the 
ruined and unfortunate merchant, of the farmer whose produce 
is falling, and will be exposed to perish in his barns. Where 
are you sailors? Listen to the passing gale of the ocean, and you 
will hear their groans issuing from French prison-ships! 

There was a time when I was animated with enthusiasm in 
favor of the French Revolution, and I cherished it, while civil 
liberty appeared to be the object : but I now consider that Rev- 
olution as completely achieved, and that the war is continued 
— not for liberty, but for conquest and aggrandisement, to 
which I do not believe it is the interest of this country to con- 
tribute. 

Otis then made an unjustifiable argument for severer 
measures against France than those taken against Great 
Britain in 1794, on the ground that the British were stim- 
ulated to annoy our commerce through an apprehension 
that we were united with France against them, and the 
French, by a belief that we were divided in their favor. 6 

my time is expired, I must abridge what you have said very materially, in doing 
which it cannot be expected that I should be very correct. 

" In future, however, since you have desired it, I shall omit what you say al- 
together, if I cannot give anything like a complete sketch of your sentiments." 

6 This was a common argument of extreme Federalists. " I debit the French 
and American Jacobins with the whole loss by British spoliation." J. Lowell, 
The Antigallican, 26. 



THE FRENCH PERIL 65 

He stigmatized the resolutions offered by Nicholas as 
"an absurd and humiliating apology." He then pro- 
ceeded to argue for measures of defense, first tearing up 
the opposition doctrine that defensive measures could 
justly be construed by France into acts of hostility: — 
"If negotiation fail, will the French give us time to equip 
our vessels, fortify our ports, and burnish our arms, in 
order to show us fair play?" — and concluded with a 
grand burst of rhetoric: 

The tide of conquest has deluged Europe; it may swell the 
great Atlantic and roll towards our shores, bringing upon its 
troubled surface the spirit of revolution, which may spread like 
a pestilence, possibly in the Southern States, and excite a war 
of the most dreadful kind — of slaves against their masters, and 
thereby endanger the existence of that Union so dear to my 
constituents, and the separation of which would be as painful 
as the agonies of death. 

This speech of Otis gave him a national reputation for 
oratory. Judge Iredell wrote Oliver Wolcott, the Secre- 
tary of the Treasury: "Mr. Otis' speech has excited 
nearly as warm emotions as Mr Ames' celebrated one, 
on the treaty. It does indeed the highest honor to his 
patriotism abilities and eloquence, and I confess, much 
as I expected from him, far exceeds my expectations." 7 

Otis's maiden speech was not simply a display of rhet- 
oric; it was his confession of faith as a steadfast member 
of the Federalist party, and an indication of that party's 
opinion of French policy. Before proceeding further, let 
us take advantage of our remote standpoint to ascertain 
what the American policy of France in 1797 really was, 
and how far Otis's analysis was correct. 

The successive French governments from 1793 to 1800 
constantly aimed to incorporate the United States into 

7 Gibbs, i, 543. 



66 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

the French system of alliances. France needed the provi- 
sions and produce of the United States for herself and 
her West-Indian colonies; she demanded as a right, under 
the treaty of 1778, the use of American ports for naval 
bases against Great Britain; she hoped to use the poten- 
tial naval strength of America to increase her own. In 
pursuit of these ends the French government had three 
different methods. The first, commerce-destroying and 
bullying diplomatic correspondence, had its effect; but 
the Directory knew that mere brutality would be in- 
sufficient to keep in tutelage a republic separated by 
three thousand miles of ocean from the armies of Bona- 
parte, Jourdan, and Moreau. The real danger of the 
French policy lay in the two other weapons, of which the 
first was intervention in American politics, — that we 
shall consider presently, — and the second, the recovery 
of her ancient territory in North America. The possession 
of Louisiana and Canada would render France and her 
colonies independent of the United States for provisions, 
and draw a French cordon about the United States that 
would check its expansion, threaten its western territory, 
and make it as much a tributary to French policy as 
Belgium or Holland. From 1796 to 1800 the French 
government was pressing Spain to cede it Louisiana, a 
policy which finally succeeded in 1800, and as an alter- 
native, in case negotiation failed, French agents were 
sent into Vermont, Georgia, and the trans-Alleghany 
region, to stir up sedition against the United States, and 
to start filibustering expeditions against Spanish and 
British America. 8 

8 F. J. Turner: "The Diplomatic Contest for the Mississippi," Amer. 
Hist. Rev., x, 249-79, with bibliography in footnotes. This policy was con- 
stantly urged on the French government by the successive ministers at Phila- 
delphia. 1903 Report of the American Historical Association, n, 566-70, 929, 
1015-77 passim. 



THE FRENCH PERIL 67 

By the time the Fifth Congress assembled, the Feder- 
alist leaders had a fairly correct idea of the different lines 
of French policy; 9 their only mistake was in overesti- 
mating the final goal toward which it was tending. 
Chiefly conducive to their belief were the current events 
of Europe, which seemed full of ominous lessons for the 
United States. Almost every European mail brought 
news of some fresh aggression of France on a neighboring 
country. One after another, the ancient governments of 
the old world had fallen victim to French intrigues, in 
alliance with a French party at home. By the time that 
the Fifth Congress assembled, France, by these methods, 
had annexed Belgium, and secured an absolute control 
over Holland and Genoa. The news of Napoleon's parti- 
tion of Venice, which arrived during the first session, and 
the sad tale of Switzerland's subjection, which reached 
America in the summer of 1798, both demonstrated 
the fate of republics that could not or would not defend 
themselves against French force and intrigue. 10 The 

9 The designs of France on Louisiana and the West were known through 
Monroe; and the movements of French agents in the Western country were 
regularly reported to the government, and through it, to the press. B. C. 
Steiner, James McHenry, 259, 263, 264, 272; Gibbs, I, 350 et seq., 548, 551. 

10 See the application of these events to the United States, in Hamilton's 
"Warning" (Works, vn, 619, 624-27), and R. G. Harper: Observations on the 
Dispute between the United States and France, addressed . . . to his constitu- 
ents, May, 1797. This pamphlet, which appeared shortly after the meeting of the 
Fifth Congress, was most influential in forming public opinion. It ran through 
at least seven American, fourteen British, one French, and one Portuguese, 
editions. Otis, in his Letter to William Heath (p. 24), reminds his readers of the 
"fearful fate of other countries, the blood stained revolution of Geneva, the 
incorporation of Belgium, the subjugation of Holland, the divisions of Italy, 
the sale of Venice, the commotions of Switzerland, and their known designs 
on Louisiana and the Floridas." Chauncey Goodrich wrote John Treadwell of 
Connecticut, June 6, 1798: "In some of the late papers I have forwarded to 
Mr. Gordon, is told the melancholy tale of miserable Switzerland. It seems to 
have been written by some friendly spirit to admonish us." Treadwell MSS., 
Connecticut Historical Society. The most cursory perusal of the correspondence 
of other Federalist leaders will yield many similar statements. 



68 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

French spoliations on our commerce, the machinations 
of French ministers with the Democrats, and the pres- 
ence of French spies, all pointed to similar intentions on 
the part of France toward the United States; and by the 
middle of 1798 most Federalists, from Washington down, 
believed that the French Directory would invade the 
United States from Santo Domingo, raise a slave insur- 
rection in the South, and seek to set up a vassal republic 
west of the Alleghanies or south of the Potomac. 11 

Otis helped to spread this belief through his first 
political pamphlet, a published letter to General William 
Heath of Roxbury, dated March 30, 1798: 12 

[I expect that the French Republic will proceed] to last 
extremities against this country, whenever she shall be at 
leisure for this purpose, and shall be confirmed in the belief that 
our internal divisions, and blind infatuation in her favor, will 
enable her, if not to conquer, at least to divide the Union. . . . 
War is not the most effectual instrument, nor the first which 
France employs in the manufacture of the rights of man: Spies, 
emissaries, exclusive patriots, and the honest but deluded mass 
of the people, are the tools with which, in other countries, she 
carves revolutions out of the rough material. The Generals and 
soldiers are reserved to give the finishing stroke. . . . Can you, 
Sir, seriously doubt of their hopes and expectations that 
Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia will pass under their 
yoke? That they have an eye upon a Cis Apalachian as well as 
upon a Trans Apalachian Republic? 

11 See Mason's letter to Otis of March 24, 1798, following chapter vi; lead- 
ing articles in the Columbian Centinel, February 3, 1798; Sparks's Washington, 
xi, 248; J. C. Welling, Addresses, etc., 279. Timothy Pickering, the Secretary 
of State, wrote R. G. Harper, March 21, 1799, that he had received authentic 
information of a projected French invasion of the South from Santo Domingo 
under General Hedouville, to be preceded by negro emissaries to arm the slaves. 
Pickering MSS., x, 502. 

12 General Heath, a Revolutionary veteran, had acted as chairman of a Rox- 
bury town meeting, which drew up a petition against permitting merchant 
vessels to arm in their defense, a measure that was then under discussion in the 
House. See Heath's letter accompanying the petition, and Mason's letters, 
following chapter vi. 



THE FRENCH PERIL 69 

What reason can be assigned to make it probable that we may 
rely upon an exemption from this general deluge? . . . Al- 
ready their Geographers, with the scale and dividers, mark out, 
on the Map of America, her future circles, departments and mu- 
nicipalities. Already their Buonapartes and Bernadottes, are 
planning future triumphs; herewith, the army of the Mississippi 
and Ohio; there with the army of the Chesapeake and Delaware. 
— Remember, Sir, things much less probable have come to 
pass. 

Extravagant as it may seem at this distance, Otis's 
prophecy of a French invasion was then quite within the 
bounds of possibility. France, by the Treaty of Campo 
Formio, in October, 1797, was at peace with all the 
world but England. Her boundaries were extended to 
the Rhine, the Alps, and the Pyrenees, and vassal re- 
publics beyond acknowledged her control. By March, 
1798, the American press had already announced that a 
huge Armie (TAngleterre was being mobilized at Boulogne. 
Should England fall before the all-conquering Bonaparte, 
whose turn would come next? That Otis's apprehensions 
on this subject were genuine, and not published merely 
for political effect, is shown by a letter to his wife of 
March 14, 1798: 

The state of the country is alarming and if the Southern 
States do not change their representation, or that Representa- 
tion change their measures, that part of the country will be lost, 
and the Eastern States will be compelled to take care of them- 
selves. My principal hope is that the affairs of Europe cannot 
long remain in their present posture; but who can calculate the 
event. Should Great Britain be compelled to yield, it is my 
opinion that our liberties and independence would fall a sacri- 
fice. She is the only barrier to the dreadful deluge, and when 
that is broken down, it will be time for us to prepare to be good 
and dutiful subjects to the French. I still trust that the Prov- 
idence which has protected will still preserve us to steer thro 
the surrounding difficulties, without being overwhelmed. 



70 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

Otis alludes to the Southern States in this letter be- 
cause that section of the country, which would have been 
the first to suffer from a French invasion, was repre- 
sented in the Fifth Congress almost wholly by Republi- 
cans, 13 who were opposing the simplest measures of de- 
fense against France. Since the beginning of our difficul- 
ties with France, Jefferson's party had taken sides against 
its own government. So consistent had been this attitude 
that most Federalists suspected the existence of a good 
understanding between the French and American Jacob- 
ins. Otis remarked in debate, on March 2, 1798: 

If my private sentiments are required, I am ready to profess 
my sincere persuasion that our difficulties with France are not 
to be imputed to any one man, but to a desperate and mis- 
guided party, existing in the bosom of our own country, who are 
in league with other bad citizens resident in France, and with 
the French nation; and I have no doubt that regular informa- 
tion and instructions are conveyed from this country to influ- 
ence the measures of the Directory, and impede our attempts to 
negotiate with success. 

Otis was right. The difficulties with France would 
have been of short duration, had not the blind infatua- 
tion of Jefferson's party for France encouraged the rulers 
of that country to use them as instruments to keep the 
United States in tutelage. Many Democratic leaders, 
moreover, were not unwilling to attain power through 
the good offices of France. We now know that the French 
ministers in Philadelphia maintained what to-day would 
be called a lobby in Congress, both receiving inside 
information from Jefferson and Republican Congress- 
men, and ordering the defeat of legislation unfriendly to 
French interests. Minister Adet took an active part in 

13 Only eight of the thirty-eight members from South of the Potomac were 
Federalists. 



THE FRENCH PERIL 71 

the election of 1796 in behalf of Jefferson. During the 
previous summer he made a tour of New England, in the 
course of which he "raised the courage" of the local 
Democrats, assured them that "France would never 
abandon them," while they in turn urged France to 
continue its policy of commerce-destroying in order to 
make the merchants support Jefferson. He even pub- 
lished letters in the Aurora, giving the American people 
to understand that they must elect Jefferson or prepare 
for a French war. 14 

When the Fifth Congress assembled, then, Otis and 
his Federalist colleagues were face to face with a mo- 
mentous problem. The French government, through 
attacks on our commerce, through designs on our terri- 
tory, through intervention in our politics, was aiming to 
make the United States a French dependency. Yet the 
French party was so strong, and public opinion so favor- 
ably inclined toward France, that the task of resisting 
the great republic seemed well-nigh hopeless. 

14 1903 Report of the American Historical Association, n, 912-1081, passim. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE CRISIS OF 1798 
^T. 32 

We left the Fifth Congress at the commencement of 
its first session, on May 23, 1797, with the Federalist side 
of the House applauding the last burst of rhetoric in 
Otis's maiden speech. After another week of debate, the 
apologetic amendment offered by Nicholas to the Answer 
of the House was defeated, and the Answer itself de- 
livered to President Adams with all due ceremony. 
Congress was then ready to begin the real business of the 
session. 

As Otis probably knew, the mighty personages in his 
party had already decided on a programme, in the 
execution of which he was expected to aid. Alexander 
Hamilton, who generally decided these matters in New 
York, by request of the President's cabinet, thoroughly 
appreciated the delicacies of the situation. The Republi- 
can party and press were noisy in their defense of French 
spoliations and insults. It would, therefore, have been 
folly for the Federal party, with its slender majority, to 
rush the country into war. Hamilton decided that a 
second attempt should be made to settle the dispute 
peaceably, by sending three envoys extraordinary to 
Paris, and that Congress in the mean time should put 
the country in a state of defense. 1 If the Directory were 
willing to negotiate decently, peace would be preserved, 
and the Federal party would receive the credit; if the 
new mission were treated as Pinckney had been, the 

1 Cf. B. C. Steiner, McHenry, 213-15, with John Adams, Works, vin, 540. 



THE CRISIS OF 1798 73 

country would be prepared for war, and the French 
party would be discredited. 

Congress was expected to act, and to act with a vigor 
of tone which was noticeably lacking in its predecessor. 
The President sounded the proper note in his opening 
message, recommending an increase of the army and 
navy, the reorganization of the militia, and permission 
for the merchants to arm their vessels. All went well at 
first, and the Answer of the House to the President was 
as high-toned as the most ardent Federalist could desire. 
But it was found impossible to carry out the President's 
recommendations. In the Senate a sufficient majority 
existed, but in the House, party Federalists and party 
Republicans were almost equal in numbers. The balance 
of power rested with a group of moderate Federalists, led 
by Dayton, the Speaker, who were unwilling to take even 
simple measures for precaution. 

That this situation occurred was no fault of Otis. It 
appears from a letter of Stephen Higginson to Timothy 
Pickering that the Essex Junto held Otis's character at 
little value, and expected him to become one of Dayton's 
trimmers. 2 They were entirely mistaken in their judg- 

2 "Mr. Otis who succeeds Ames will not be his equal in any view, & it may 
be very uncertain in some cases how he will act. he is a seeker of office, his am- 
bition has no bounds and whoever can offer him the best station for honour and 
profit will have him. at present he thinks, I believe, that his best chance is 
from the Government, and whilst he conceives his interest connected with and 
dependent upon Them, he will be on your side, saving such variations as he 
may think essential to his standing so fair with opposition, as to keep a way 
open to join them whenever he shall think it for his interest. — 

"I think it important & right to say thus much to you, about Mr. O: be- 
cause his being elected by the friends to Government may otherwise give you 
too much confidence in him. It is true we united in supporting his election, 
because we could united in no other, and believing that his looking to Govern- 
ment for promotion would keep him in the main steady and right, if you can 
keep up his reputation, you may derive some Aid from him at times, as he has 
some popular talents; but he is not a man of much application or a very strong 
mind, of course can never be a good Sheet Anchor." Boston, May 11, 1797, 
1896 Report of the American Historical Association, i, 798. 



74 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

ment. Otis, who was tireless in debate, proved a tower of 
strength to his party. He made it his particular duty to 
answer Gallatin's able speeches — "to ferret him in his 
retreats, and to strip his designs of the metaphysical 
garb which conceals their turpitude," as the Centinel put 
the case. Far from being a trimmer, he stood out with 
his young Carolina friends, Harper and Rutledge, in 
favor of war preparations. 3 He did all in his power to 
pass measures to permit the arming of merchant vessels 
in their defense, to increase the navy, and to create a 
provisional army, — bills which were defeated by the 
combined votes of Jeffersonians and moderate Federal- 
ists. The net result of the session was a loan of $800,000, 
a beggarly appropriation for fortifications, a slight in- 
crease in taxes, and an act for the completion of the three 
frigates, Constitution, President, and United States, whose 
keels had been laid down in 1794. 

The failure of such men as Jefferson, Madison, and 
Gallatin to see that their policy tended inevitably to 
make their country a French dependency, can be under- 
stood only through their political theories and their 
interests. As representatives of agricultural districts 
they were indifferent to the commercial depredations of 
France. Jefferson, indeed, considered the carrying trade 
an illegitimate business, that deserved to be pillaged by 
French privateers. The childlike confidence of his party 
in the good faith of France, whose policy, they yet be- 

3 A Philadelphia letter in the Chronicle of June 22, 1797, announces the " mel- 
ancholy fate of poor Smith, Harper, and Otis." — " About ten or hfteen days 
ago these gentlemen were seized with a violent delirium — the Gallophobia" 
and became "especially outrageous when the French Republic was mentioned." 
They raved about "magazines, cannon, bombs, gallies, frigates, and a land 
tax. . . . They are all now a little more composed, owing to some Buonaparte 
Pills which happily arrived in the ship Chronicle." The "Buonaparte Pills" 
meant the news of Napoleon's pursuit of Archduke Charles across the Alps, and 
the peace of Leoben. 



THE CRISIS OF 1798 75 

lieved, was still actuated by the anti-monarchical prop- 
aganda of 1792, made them willing to swallow her 
arrogance and insults. Above all, they feared that the 
Federalists, under cover of a French war, would ally 
themselves with Great Britain to crush out liberty in 
both France and America. Republican fears of an Anglo- 
Federalist despotism were quite as strong as Federalist 
fears of a French invasion. Hence we find Jefferson and 
his party at every opportunity seeking to limit the power 
of the Executive; 4 and, because war would necessarily 
tend to increase the power of that arm of the government, 
they feared war above all things. Their refusal to coop- 
erate with the government in strengthening its military 
and naval armament is thus not very surprising, espe- 
cially when we consider that the opposition party in 
England was then acting in precisely the same manner, 
and that the Federalists, when conditions were reversed 
ten years later, acted in precisely the same manner in 
their turn. 

The same state of affairs continued through the winter 
months of the second session of the Fifth Congress. The 
President's opening address, of November 23, 1797, re- 
newed his recommendations of the previous session. 
Otis was appointed chairman of the committee on the 
House reply, and announced to Mrs. Otis, on November 
27: 

Inclosed is a printed copy of the reported answer of the 
house to the President's speech. You may show it to your 
friends, but the Printers must not have it untill it has passed 
the House. I was Chairman of the Committee and drew the 

4 They opposed, for instance, the passage of general appropriation acts, which 
was the custom under Federalist administrations, and of appropriating lump 
sums for forts, or army and navy, or foreign intercourse, to be used at the Presi- 
dent's discretion. The practice of small detailed appropriations, so conducive 
to log-rolling and jobbery, sprang up in Jefferson's administration. 



76 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

answer; and tho I have studiously avoided all hard expression, 
and endeavored to make it as palatable as possible, I expect 
that some of the pack will growl and oppose. 

Otis proved an able conciliator, for, as he later wrote 
his wife, his report of the Answer was "adopted unani- 
mously, with only the change of a single word, so that we 
were in luck at least, to save a fortnight's squabbling." 
Much time was doubtless saved, but time was what the 
Fifth Congress could best afford to squander. Everything 
hung fire awaiting news from the envoys in Paris. By the 
experience of the previous session, the Federalist leaders 
had learned that no spirit could be expected from Congress 
without some fresh provocation from France, and con- 
sequently they made little attempt to push through a 
scheme of defense. Otis wrote his wife on December 3: 

Congress will do no business of an important nature untill 
some intelligence is received respecting the probable issue of 
the negotiation with France. What this will be it is extremely 
difficult to determine. Their councils are not governed by those 
settled principles which lead them to respect the rights of others 
or even to consult on all occasions their own interest. 

I cannot however think they will be so infatuated as to widen 
the breach. This conduct without serving them would probably 
alienate forever our affections, our prejudices, & what is of more 
consequence our trade & at the same time strengthen their 
enemy and rival. And on the other hand, they do not seem to 
be in a temper to confess errors or repair injuries. Perhaps 
they will attempt a temporising policy, talk plausibly & try 
to amuse without adopting any definite measures. I hope how- 
ever there is yet a spirit in this country to resent and to baffle 
such intrigues. 

The same feeling of suspense is shown in a letter to 
Otis, dated December 4, 1797, from Jonathan Mason, 
Jr., of Boston. Since Mason was then a member of the 
Governor's Council, and one of the leading Massachusetts 



THE CRISIS OF 1798 77 

Federalists, his letter may be taken, in a certain sense, 
as Otis's party instructions: 

The Presidents speech is esteemed for its principles; The 
Friends of decent cloathing, take exceptions to it. We do not 
anticipate much from the present Session — do no harm & you 
will satisfy your constituents. That our Commerce is to remain 
a prey to our Republican Friends on the other side, seems to be 
the general sentiment, & the probability of an amicable adjust- 
ment is wholly given up. You individually are to stand at your 
Post, firm — I mean by that word — industrious, constant, 
decisive, complaisant, always to be found by your Party, & 
never to retreat. These points with talent will carry you to your 
wishes, & insure the confidence of your friends, which at all 
events must be inspired & maintain'd. Shall I tell you, that I 

wish you had never apologized to G 5 that in the comment 

of your friends upon that part of your conduct, it has been 
deemed an error, & that it was giving to the rascal the possibility 
of construing it into a Triumph. It is not doubted that it was 
handsomely done, & not from any improper personal motive, 
but a laudable solicitude to effect what cannot be in its nature 
effected — a successful attempt to please every body. I mention 
this that in future, after reflection you may push straight for- 
ward. I mention it, that it may help you, for I conceive it an 
immense advantage, that a person in a conspicuous active, re- 
sponsible situation, should know the opinions of his own 
friends, & those who wish him well — as such you will accept it. 

Amid this excitement over foreign affairs, one act of 
the second session, which marked a new step forward in 
humanity, passed unnoticed. This was a law abolishing 
imprisonment for debts to the federal government. Otis 
was chairman of the committee that reported the bill, 
and acted as its sponsor before the House. 6 

The dull march of routine business in the winter months 
was not, however, without its amusing incidents. In 

6 Gallatin, — a reference to Otis's apology for his "Second Shirt" speech. 
6 Annals of Fifth Congress, 3734. Otis's report in favor of the bill, is in 
Ibid., 1796. 



78 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

January, 1798, occurred the famous Lyon-Griswold af- 
fair. Matthew Lyon of Vermont, an ill-bred little printer 
of Irish birth, was of all the "Jacobins" in Congress the 
most obnoxious to Federalists. 7 During the Revolution, 
Lyon had been cashiered — unjustly, it seems — for 
cowardice, and punished by being compelled to wear a 
wooden sword as a sign of disgrace. On January 30, 1798, 
before the session for the day commenced, Lyon, in con- 
versation with some other member, began to boast of the 
political revolution he would create in Connecticut, could 
he bring his printing press thither. Roger Griswold of 
Connecticut inquired sarcastically whether he would 
also bring his wooden sword with him. Lyon replied by 
spitting full in Griswold's face. The Federalists then 
demanded Lyon's expulsion from the House as the only 
proper punishment for so flagrant a breach of de- 
corum, but he was stoutly defended by his party on the 
pretext that the spitting took place before the House was 
called to order. In the debate that followed, Otis made a 
long speech in favor of expulsion, remarking that "He 
would challenge anyone to show so shameful an act of as- 
sault and battery committed without provocation at any 
former period, or in any country, ... it would not be 
suffered in a brothel or in a den of robbers! " To his wife 
he wrote: "Was anything so infamous ever heard of be- 
fore? Yet I expect the whole party will stand by to pro- 
tect him, & in that event we cannot expel him; a concur- 
rence of two thirds being necessary for this purpose." 
Such was the case; the vote was strictly on party lines, 

7 At the beginning of each session, Lyon asked to be excused from waiting 
on the President with the rest of the House to present the Answer, because he 
found that the ceremony smacked of royalty. On one of these occasions, " Mr. 
Otis said, as the Lyon appeared to be in a savage mood, he would recommend 
him to be locked up while the House proceeded to the President." J. F. Mc- 
Laughlin, Matthew Lyon, 224. 



THE CRISIS OF 1798 79 

52 to 44, an insufficient majority. According to one of 
Otis's letters, the Republicans' motive in thus shielding 
Lyon, was "merely to avail themselves of his vote here- 
after, while they acknowledge that he was deserving of 
expulsion. This among other traits serves to shew the 
character of the party and their disregard of all principle 
& decency, but as they have rope enough it is to be hoped 
they will hang themselves." 

Expulsion having failed, Mr. Griswold took the law into 
his own hands, and at the next appearance of Lyon in 
the Hall of Representatives, he attacked him with a stout 
club. Lyon grasped the Congressional fire-tongs to defend 
himself, and the two men rolled over and over upon the 
floor, striking at each other, until some other members 
pulled them apart by the legs. The House was then 
called to order, but, as the combatants renewed their 
scuffling at intervals during the session, it finally ad- 
journed on Otis's motion. 

By this affair, Griswold put himself on a level with 
Lyon. The Federalists apparently held a caucus to con- 
sider the matter, 8 and most of them, including Otis, voted 
against a motion to expel and to censure both combatants, 
since they felt that Griswold's retaliation was justified. 
The Federalists must therefore share with their opponents 
the responsibility for leaving unpunished the first of these 
disorderly affairs in Congress, which subsequently be- 
came far too frequent. 

The Lyon-Griswold fracas was a somewhat extreme 
expression of the temper of this Congress. While awaiting 
news from France, members of the two parties gave vent 
to their feelings in long debates on minor topics, filled with 

8 " The unfortunate controversy between Griswold and Lyon has obliged me 
to attend a meeting of some members this evening." Otis to Mrs. Otis, Febru- 
ary 18, 1798. I take this to be an allusion to the congressional caucus. 



80 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

recriminations and bitter personal attacks. Giles of Vir- 
ginia on one occasion accused the Federalists of a deter- 
mination to make war on France at all costs. When Otis 
stigmatized these remarks as "bold, ungraceful, and dis- 
graceful," Giles replied that "neither Mr. Otis, nor any- 
other gentleman, durst make that assertion in any other 
place." A rumor, which gave much anxiety to Otis's fam- 
ily and friends, reported that a duel between Otis and 
Giles, resulting in the former's death, had followed this 
exchange of pleasantries; but, since the so-called code of 
honor was no part of Otis's New England upbringing, 
the affair went no further than words. 

Finally, on March 4, 1798, the long-expected dispatches 
from the three envoys in Paris arrived. The bulk of the 
papers being in cipher, the President communicated to t 
Congress but the one dispatch in which the cipher was not 
used. This document, dated at Paris, January 8, 1798, 
announced that no hope existed of the envoys being offi- 
cially received by the Directory, and that a new decree, 
subjecting to capture any neutral vessel carrying in whole 
or in part British goods, had passed the Council of Five 
Hundred. The Federalists now felt that the time had 
come for a fresh attempt to put the country in a state of 
defense. Only with great difficulty, however, were they 
able to pass such an essential measure as the equipping of 
the Constitution, President, and United States. That pub- 
lic spirit had been gradually evaporating during the long 
period — almost a year now — since Pinckney's dismis- 
sal and the beginning of the spoliations, is clear from Otis's 
letter of March 8: "There seems to be a great want of 
public spirit among the people, and I should doubt if there 
be a majority in our own house to adopt those vigorous 
and decisive measures which to me appear necessary." 

On March 19, the President announced that, after an 



THE CRISIS OF 1798 81 

examination and mature consideration of the dispatches, 
he could perceive no ground to expect the objects of the 
mission could be "accomplished on terms compatible 
with the safety, honor, or the essential interests of the na- 
tion." He therefore renewed a second time his recommen- 
dation to defend our coasts and commerce, and to act 
with "zeal, vigour, and concert, in defence of the national 
rights." If the Federalists expected, however, that this 
definite announcement of the Directory's refusal to ne- 
gotiate would shake the Franco-Jeffersonian alliance, 
they were entirely mistaken. In the House debates that 
followed the President's communication, the adminis- 
tration was accused of insincerity, deception, and a de- 
sire to dragonnade the country into war with France and 
a British alliance. The Republican press echoed these 
sentiments. In this dangerous crisis, Jefferson wished his 
followers to bring about an adjournment of Congress, in 
order to gain time to allow the French invasion of Eng- 
land — an event which he ardently desired — "to have 
its effect here as well as there." 9 

This attitude placed the Federalists in an awkward 
dilemma. Otis, for instance, who had a fairly accurate 
knowledge of the dispatches on March 22, knew that their 
publication would silence and discredit the French party; 
but such a course, he perceived, might not only endanger 
the lives of our envoys in Paris, but prove a bar to future 
diplomatic negotiations. 10 Meanwhile the opposition was 
calling for publication, foolishly confident that it would 
expose a Federalist bluff. For a time the Federalists re- 
sisted, but they found the temptation to disclose the in- 
formation too strong. "We wish much for the papers," 
wrote Jonathan Mason from Boston. "The Jacobins 

9 Jefferson, Works, iv, 222. 
10 See his letter of March 22 to Jonathan Mason, at end of this chapter. 



82 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

want them. And in the name of God let them be gratified; 
it is not the first time they have wished for the means of 
their destruction." On April 2, Harper introduced a reso- 
lution asking for the papers, and on the following day the 
President sent down to the House the famous "X. Y. Z. 
dispatches." 

When a few days later the entire correspondence was 
published, the people were at last given a first-hand view 
of the methods of French diplomacy. None of the Ameri- 
can grievances had been redressed; the French spoliations 
continued as before; and after a three months' residence in 
Paris, the three envoys were still refused an official recep- 
tion by the Directory. Instead, they had been persistently 
informed by go-betweens (whose names, in the published 
dispatches, were discreetly represented by the letters 
X, Y, and Z) and by Talleyrand himself, that as an 
indispensable preliminary to negotiation the American 
envoys must make a loan of $250,000 to the French gov- 
ernment, pay over a similar sum as a douceur for the 
Directors' pockets, and apologize for certain "unfriendly" 
expressions in the President's first message to the Fifth 
Congress. America was threatened with the fate of Ven- 
ice, and the envoys assured that the Directory was pos- 
sessed of the means, "through the French party in Amer- 
ica," of throwing the blame of the rupture on the Feder- 
alists. No set of documents could have served better to 
open the eyes of the people to the methods and aims of 
French policy, and to wean away their affections from the 
French defenders and apologists. Y 7 et the X. Y. Z. dis- 
patches told nothing of the real danger that then threat- 
ened the United States from France. Talleyrand and the 
Directory were not aiming to drive the United States into 
war, as the Federalists supposed, for they were almost 
entirely dependent on the United States for provisioning 



THE CRISIS OF 1798 83 

their colonies. They were simply temporizing, while they 
carried on negotiations at Madrid for the cession of Louis- 
iana, the possession of which would attain the objects of 
the Republic's American policy. 

The undiplomatic methods by which Talleyrand played 
his game with Pinckney and his colleagues, is explained 
by the situation of the French government, when the 
three American envoys presented their claims. Barras and 
the terrible triumvirate, supreme over their domestic op- 
ponents by the coup d'etat of the 18 Fructidor, 11 secure in 
their grip on Italy and the Rhine by the Treaty of Campo 
Formio, were at that time on a pinnacle of power and ar- 
rogance. They had severed the peace negotiations then 
pending with Great Britain and Russia, and expelled the 
Portuguese minister from France. Coups d'etat were being 
hatched to "fructidoriser" the neighboring republics. 12 
Talleyrand's insolent demand for bribes and tribute from 
the American envoys was due to this overweening arro- 
gance of his government, and to its appetite for plunder. 
Accustomed to sell its friendship to the smaller states of 
Europe, it made the mistake of applying these methods 
to a nation out of the reach of French armies. 

The X. Y. Z. dispatches, published and spread broad- 
cast through newspapers and pamphlets, produced a re- 
volution in American public opinion. As the news spread 
from Philadelphia, a spontaneous clamor of patriotism 

11 By the coup d'Stat of the 18 Fructidor, An. V (September 4, 1797), the 
"Amis de la Paix," who wished to reverse the policy of France toward neutral 
nations and make peace with England, were epurSs from all branches of the gov- 
ernment by the triumvirate of militant Directors, Barras, Rewbell, and La 
Revelliere-Lepeaux. This event really ended any chance of the American 
mission procuring justice from France, 

12 A. Sorel, L' Europe et la Revolution Frangaise, v, 225-30, 294-96. Rufus 
King wrote from London (King, n, 294) that the Directory hoped to pull off 
an 18 Fructidor against the Federalists. The Portuguese incident was well 
known to the American government; and as Portugal had purchased her treaty, 
the lesson was obvious. Hamilton, Works, vi, 275; Steiner, McEenry, 285, n. 



84 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

burst forth in every part of the country. "Millions for 
defense, but not one cent for tribute! " became the popu- 
lar cry; "Hail Columbia," and "Adams and Liberty," 
the national anthems. The Federal party to a man, and 
thousands among the former followers of Jefferson, has- 
tened to sign memorials and addresses tendering the gov- 
ernment their confidence. 13 Volunteer companies were 
formed; flags embroidered and presented; Talleyrand 
hung in effigy; war vessels purchased or built by popular 
subscription. It was one of the few occasions between 
1792 and the War of 1812 when a majority of the Ameri- 
can people showed a "manly sense of national honor, dig- 
nity, and independence." u Yet the enthusiasm was not 
universal. Though deserted by the voters, though dis- 
mayed and disheartened, the Republican leaders stuck to 
their guns. With a consistency that would be admirable 
but for its anti-patriotism, they continued to preach sub- 
mission to all-powerful France, our " magnanimous ally"; 
they even made desperate efforts to prove that Messrs. 
X., Y., and Z. were a set of unauthorized swindlers, hav- 
ing no connection with the French government; and they 
warned the people that Federalist policy spelt British alli- 
ance and monarchy. 15 But Jefferson was deposed from 
his pedestal, Adams and Pinckney and Marshall were the 
heroes of the day. For the first and last time in its his- 

13 A delightful example of the effect of the X. Y. Z. letters is given in a letter 
from the Rev. John Murray of Boston to John Adams, June 19, 1798: "Thanks 
be to God, that in the greatness of his goodness he has made our enemies instru- 
mental in uniting the good people of these states, more than ever I expected to 
have seen them in my day. For a long season my heart was pained, on not 
being able to count in my Congregation (as large as any in this Town) as many 
Federalists as states in the Union — now, thanks be to God, and our good Ally, 
I find converts multiplying every day — it is the Lord's doings and it is mar- 
vellous in our eyes." Adams MSS. 

14 Quoted from the President's Message of December 8, 1798. 

16 Madison, Works, n, 134; Jefferson, Works, iv, 275; Tucker, Jefferson, 
11,43. 



THE CRISIS OF 1798 85 

tory the Federal party found itself popular. The people 
felt with justice that the administration had pursued the 
policy of conciliation to the utmost limit permissible for a 
nation that desired to be called free and independent; that 
defense by force of arms was necessary to preserve the 
national honor and integrity. 

By his conduct during this period Otis had won the 
approbation of the wise men of his party. Fisher Ames 
wrote him, on April 23, 1798: 

Your speech was good, but your letter to General H[eathl 
better than good; it is excellent — useful to the public, reput- 
able to you; and the strokes ad captandum are so blended with 
irony, that Roxbury vanity must be flattered and humbled at 
the same time. I write in confidence, and I should despise the 
thought of flattery. Rely on it, your friends exult on the peru- 
sal of the letter. You must not talk of fees, nor of being weary 
of well doing. The enlistment is such, you cannot return to 
private life yet, without desertion. I hope and trust your task 
will be in future less irksome, and more will help you. Folly 
has nearly burnt out its fuel, I mean the French passion; and 
the zeal of good men must be warmer and more active than it 
has been or we sink. It is too late to preach peace, and to say 
we do not think of war; a defensive war must be waged, whether 
it is formally proclaimed or not. That, or submission, is before 
us. 16 

Although not yet thirty-three years old, Otis had risen 
to the position of first lieutenant to Harper's captaincy of 
the House majority. So far his work had been uphill; it 
was now crowned with popular sanction and confidence. 
On Otis, then, as much as on any member of the Federal 
party, rested the responsibility of retaining this confi- 
dence, by a policy at once firm and spirited, yet respecting 
the prejudices of a people trained to fear strong govern- 
ment. 

16 Ames, Works, i, 228. 



86 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

LETTERS, 1797-98 
JONATHAN MASON, JR., TO OTIS 

Boston Deer 24, 1797 
My dear Sir. — 

I am to beg your attention, by the request of the Directors 
of our board, to a grant which they have asked for, for the pur- 
pose of building a Bank house in Boston, & which is to be agi- 
tated at the Stockholders Meeting on Wednesday next. 17 You 
know the inconvenience of the one at present used for that 
purpose, It is indecent, out of repair, filthy & disreputable. 
The Vaults are too small, the sun never enters any part of it, 
it is cold, damp, & in short in every view impossible longer to 
carry on and transact the business there. The Transactions of 
the Bank, are daily increasing. The other states have been 
indulged in similar requests, & to a much larger amount. 

We hold in this state permanently, a full proportion of the 
stock of the Bank — & the seat of Government out of view 
have the same rights to accomodation, as they have at Phila- 
delphia. 

One other reason, I may mention to you — a handsome build- 
ing, will help your Town & its Mechanicks. Eno' upon that 
Subject. . . . 

W T e do not like appearances at Philadelphia, tho you have 
not yet been bro't to open Combat French interest is not drove 
from your house, by French cruelty, perfidy, & injury. On the 
contrary it seems to be ingrafted into the blood of you. We 
wish much for important news from France, & that their Con- 
duct to this Country may be unequivocal, that the strength 
of its Government may be fairly tried the present session. If 
we are to Fight them at last, we had better know it now — & 
there seems to be a universal Wish, that our Commissioners 
either may be sincerely received, respected & satisfyed, or 
treated in such manner, as will preclude even Comment. . . . 

17 Otis and Mason were both directors of the Boston Branch of the United 
States Bank. 



THE CRISIS OF 1798 87 

JONATHAN MASON, JR., TO OTIS 

Boston Febry 19, 1798 



People in general fear the issue of Lyon's indecency, that your 
House have made a political question of it, & that your Skulls 
will be safe, in exact proportion to the strength of your party. 
You have the honor of outdoing the National Convention, & 
are in a fair way of becoming an assembly of gladiators. What 
with Randolph, Blount, Monroe, Lyon & such rascals, in a few 
Years, I think we shall need great effrontery to defend the 
American Character. Griswold I think has a difficult task. 
The world say he must beat him either in or out of the House. 
One or the other for his own sake — but if you fail of the ques- 
tion upon the expulsion, in the House, for yours — I mean your 
party — for you must have a champion. In any event I feel 
grieved that the saliva of an Irishman should be left upon the 
face of an American & He, a New Englandman. My good 
Father Powell says, that if Griswold had been in the presence 
of the great God himself, he ought to have taken his revenge 
upon the spot, & beat his brains out. He ridicules the idea of 
Griswold's bravery. I pray Heaven he may be disappointed. 

Things seem at such a crisis. Good men differ upon the sub- 
ject of arming. 18 They think that Individuals may take undue 
advantages of the Power & that Foreigners will abuse it under 
our Flag. Wm Gray Jr seems to be much against it. The de- 
predations have already been great, & it is his opinion that some 
decided step respecting this Country cannot be at a great dis- 
tance — that we had better be patient & not irritate. That a re- 
volution in their councils may essentially alter their conduct, 
& that should the Power be granted, the trade will not pay the 
expense, & of course very few would take advantage of it. On 
the other hand, it has very respectable advocates with us, & 
they say, that it will protect our citizens & their property, & will 
not alter the Conduct of France towards this Country, provided 
she is disposed for Peace — & if she is not, the refraining from 

18 That is, permitting merchant vessels to arm in their own defense — the 
question that brought out Otis's Letter to General Heath. 



88 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

arming will be of no consequence. For my own part, I wish that 
Prudence & reflection & Judgement may precede every step 
taken & after that, these taken, may be pursued with energy. I 
feel willing to bear for a time, but I think we ought not to be 
bore down, with insult, & that it behoves us, if we suffer our- 
selves to be spit upon, as Griswold has, to show the world that 
if we are cool, we are decidedly brave — at the expence of our 
existence as a nation. . . . 

God bless you. I wish you well & I beg that in no event, you 
will differ from your party, but stand by them. 

Yrs sincerely 

J Mason Jr 



GENERAL WILLIAM HEATH TO OTIS 19 

Roxbury March 21st 1798 

Sir 

The People in this quarter exceedingly alarmed at a report 
that Congress were about granting liberty to the merchants 
to arm their private vessels by authority. The Inhabitants of 
this Town on a very short notice assembled on Yesterday and 
in an Uncommon full meeting, — never did I for the forty years 
that I have been on the stage of action, see a meeting more at- 
tentively and solemnly engaged, or more Unanimous. The ques- 
tion was whether Congress should be petitioned not to grant 
leave for private vessels to arm. On the question being put, 
there were but four Gentlemen who voted in the negative, and 
these immediately declared, that they were as much against 
arming as those who voted in the affirmative on the question — 
but that for themselves they wished to rest the issue with Con- 
gress. — so that it may be fairly said that every person who 
voted was in Sentiment, as to the measure itself. 

The Town appointed a Committee to draught sign and for- 
ward a Petition to Congress expressive of their sentiments as 
stated in their vote. The Committee therefore that they might 
not mistake or mistate the sense of the Town have couched the 
Petition — nearly in a transcript of the vote. The Committee 
do themselves the honor of addressing the Petition to your care 

19 This letter, and the petition therein mentioned, were the occasion of Otis's 
published Letter to General Heath. 



THE CRISIS OF 1798 89 

as the immediate Representative of our District, and request that 
you will embrace the earliest moment to present it to Congress, 
whether a resolution on the question, has passed, or not, — and 
that you will give it such support as it may appear to deserve. 
It is also requested that you would communicate the subject to 
all the other Gentlemen representing this Commonwealth. But 
the Committee request that there may be no delay in present- 
ing the Petition. What other towns may say, or do, I cannot 
tell, one thing is certain there never was a time in which the 
people in general appeared to be more opposed to war with any 
nation under Heaven, than is expressed at this time — and 
they look upon arming of private vessels but little short of a 
declaration of it. The Gentlemen in trade, or a part of them, 
may be in favor of arming. Heaven grant that those who steer 
the public Barke, may run for the Haven of Honor, peace, pros- 
perity and happiness of our own Country. 

OTIS TO JONATHAN MASON, JR. 20 

Philadelphia, March 22 [1798] 
After reading the President's message you will naturally 
conclude that we are forthwith occupied in concerns of the first 
magnitude. The case, however, is otherwise. — The opposition 
leaders pretend that they cannot act without knowing the con- 
tents of the late dispatches; and this excuse which is made only 
for want of another, is countenanced by a seeming apathy of the 
friends of the Government, arising merely from the scruples of 
a few individuals, without whose aid we cannot act; and who 
are also chagrined by the suppression of the dispatches. This 
state of things cannot continue long. A disclosure of the late 
information received by The Executive would probably elec- 
trise the whole American people, or demonstrate such an utter 
prostration of national spirit & honor as would shew all hopes of 
resistance to be vain. But if propriety should still forbid the 
communication, it is morally certain that facts of a nature not 
to be concealed, and indicative of a settled purpose in the 
French Government to humble and to ruin us, will follow in 

20 From the Columbian Centinel of March 31. This is the extract referred to 
in Mason's letter of March 30. It is headed: "Highly Important, And from a 
Source of the First Respectability." 



90 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

rapid succession, and produce the same effect that would follow 
upon publishing the dispatches. 

It must be obvious to all who reflect, that the Executive 
would gladly impart his knowledge of any facts that would so 
fully justify his conduct, confirm the friends and confound the 
adversaries of the Government, as it is presumed these dis- 
patches would do. He has accordingly at one period hesitated 
on this subject, as I am informed, though not officially. — Two 
principles have hitherto decided him in favor of witholding them : 
A regard to the personal safety of the Commissioners, and an 
apprehension of the effect of a disclosure upon our future dip- 
lomatic intercourse. — The dispatches would probably unfold 
such a scene of corruption among the present men in power, 
discord among the Directory, and such projects for our humilia- 
tion, as would excite indignation without bounds against the 
Commissioners, if they should be at Paris ; and obstruct those 
sources of information on which they and our future ministers 
to all countries must occasionally depend. These are very 
serious considerations. It is however very probable that they 
will be surmounted, so far, at least as relates to a part of these 
dispatches if a resolution should prevail, to call for informa- 
tion. Such a motion is to be expected, and many of our friends 
think it best merely to vote against it without much debate, 
and permit it to be carried, by means of a few of the federal 
men who think well of the measure. — The responsibility for 
any disadvantage resulting from the disclosure of the papers, 
will fall on the right spot, and the advantage arising from the 
impression would be common to us all. 

JOHN GARDNER 21 TO OTIS 

Boston March 24 1798 
*********** 

At Roxbury & Milton there have been town meetings 
against arming the merchantmen, and the votes proposed by the 
Demo's were carried by large majorities. Our enlightened 
Miltonians were quite violent upon the occasion. I found it 
necessary to spout, (for the first time in my life) against the 

21 This is probably John Gardner (1770-1825), son of Dr. Samuel Gardner 
of Milton. 



THE CRISIS OF 1798 91 

policy of the people's interfering with those measures of defence, 
wh. government may find it necessary to adopt. But it was 
without effect. Even Mr. Robbins 22 who has always been so 
popular with them, was treated with no kind of respect or at- 
tention. He made a pretty good speech, and certainly full mode- 
rate enough — but was frequently interrupted and told he had 
better hold his tongue if he could not talk to the purpose! 

I see by the papers that you have had a dispute with Giles, & 
think you were very properly severe upon him. I hope you will 
not be obliged personally to expose yourself, but am convinced 
you would sooner do this, than give way to him. My opinion of 
this Giles is that he is a Brag & a Bully, & (though I admit he 
might be brought to fight) that he is not fonder of it than other 
people. If he crowds you, it will be in consequence of his know- 
ledge of your happy domestic situation, and your coming from 
a part of the country where duelling is not in vogue. . . . 

• 
JONATHAN MASON, JR., TO OTIS 

Boston March 26 1798 
My dear Sir. 

. . . We have already had two Town meetings upon the sub- 
ject of arming with the Roxbury General 23 at the head of them, 
& God knows whether we shall not have two & twenty — as the 
fire seems to spread & the wind is tolerably high. I have doubts 
whether it will be tryed in Boston. We are industriously spread- 
ing the news of a postponement of a discussion of the question, 
which will in a degree damp this poison, & which I pray God 
may take place. I do not wish to see the character or courage of 
the Country called in question, but Fabian prudence was never 
more necessary. We have a singular enemy, extremely power- 
full, but extremely diseased & almost all mankind unite in this 
Opinion, that a great change if not political death must speed- 
ily take place. In a revolution, if we shall not have committed 
ourselves, we certainly have everything to hope, & in the event 
of a general peace, may reasonably expect, that all our difficul- 
ties will subside. If united among ourselves, such have been our 

22 Edward H. Robbins (1758-1829), afterwards Lieutenant Governor of 

Massachusetts. 

23 William Heath. 



92 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

injuries from that republic, that we ought to hazard the last 
shilling to obtain satisfaction, but the infatuated state of our 
Country, the barefaced conduct & exertions of the faction within 
us, would paralize every effort of administration & finally end 
in civil War. If we are now prostrate, we must thank ourselves ; 
for the same conduct by the same faction pursued with respect 
to any foreign nation who might have the same power & am- 
bition, would bring down the same insult, injury & contempt as 
we now meet with from France. 

Without flattery, your speech & conduct in the session are 
both approved by your friends, & a continuance of steady sup- 
port, firm but moderate, general & not personal, to the present 
administration & measures will not only insure you the appro- 
bation of your constituents, but I think also their Obligation. 
For in your present task, must be a great share of bitter, with 
precious little sweet. It did not become you to court a duel, 
& I think you did nothing to avoid it, which a Man of courage 
& honour wd not justify. The debates of all your gentlemen 
however are by much too personal, & I cannot but think that 
if each one would try in that particular to reform himself, it 
would greatly add to his honour & fame, & remove the difficulty. 
A man may shew to his enemy Great Bravery without mixture 
of any passion. . . . We are barren of all news. Ames is very 
sick at Dedham & has been confined for the month past. The 
public part of your letters I take care to shew the Cabot, Lowell 
& Higginson crew for without their approbation, Where will the 
fat be? 24 

Adieu God bless you, & preserve you from Fire, powder & 
the Sword 

Jona Mason Jr. 



JONATHAN MASON, JR., TO OTIS 

Boston Fire Insurance Office. 

March 30th. 1798 

My dear sir. 

I received your deeds by the last Post, also your letter of the 

22d. The contents do not dismay those who are well affected. 

24 A significant reference to the Essex Junto, and their control of political 
favors. 



THE CRISIS OF 1798 93 

The expectations of Federalists have long since subsided, as 
they respected either compensation or justice from the French 
Republic. On the contrary, their Fears only have been, that 
they have observed an insidious doubtful kind of conduct, 
which would in this country have increased & confirmed the un- 
happy division among us. The present information in a degree 
removes those fears, & as far as I can see has already had a happy 
effect with us. Good People do not appear to be frightened far 
from it. Timid ones have their doubts removed daily, & the 
Jacobin Class will with us be shortly confined to those who will 
sell their Country, and are perhaps among the most abandoned 
of mankind. We have long since wanted some line of Conduct 
from the French, which should be unequivocal & visible to the 
most common eye, that should supercede argument, & not be 
capable of wearing two faces. We are going to have that same 
thing & it will operate like good medicine upon the body poli- 
tic. It seems on all hands agreed that a short fever is preferable 
to a languishing consumption. We wish much for the papers, 
if they can with propriety be made public. The Jacobins want 
them. And in the name of God let them be gratified; it is not 
the first time they have wished for the means of their destruc- 
tion. Mr Adams has immortalized himself in the Opinion of 
Yankeys — he seems to stand alone with the sentiments he set 
out with in 1763 & 75 — & they do not appear impaired. With 
these sentiments & a vigorous governmt. to support them, we 
have nothing to fear from those rascals on the other side of the 
Water. But while he promulgates them & the government para- 
lizes them, nothing can be expected from the French but insult 
& injury, unless you remove him & every other branch & law 
that they do not approve. (I was obliged to permit a part of your 
fetter to be published in to morrow's Centinel. The 'praying part, 
Russell said he would be damn'd if he could publish. So in 
future you had better lay that aside, as I am not much better 
acquainted with it, than his honor) We must reconcile our 
minds to a few moments of Warfare. It will not hurt us, & I 
am not one those that think, that it will produce either a civil 
war, or break down the great business of society in this Country 
which at present appears so well founded. 

We have much to expect from the other side of the Water. & 
it is not an improbable conjecture, that the period is not far 



94 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

distant, when this very conduct of the Executive directory to- 
wards this Country, shall be brought as a specific charge of com- 
plaint against them, by their successors in Office. A revolution 
in its nature must be at hand. No thinking Man believes them 
to be sincere in the projected invasion — much less that they 
will succeed if they attempt it. The money sinews of the Coun- 
try are now strained & forced beyond their bearing to carry it 
on, & the day of reconing will follow close at its heels. Under 
these circumstances, the Opposition in our Country notwith- 
standing, If Government continue upright, & firm in their poli- 
ticks, If they will furnish the Means of defence, If they will 
shew a handsome regard to themselves, & let the World witness, 
that tho' they are prudent, they are not afraid, that tho' they 
forbear, they do not mean to flinch, we shall get along & per- 
haps renovate that character, which your house has this session 
greatly tarnished . . . 

THOMAS HANDASYD PERKINS TO OTIS 

Boston April 21, 1798 Sunday Eve. 

# # * # # # * * * * * 

Knowing how much pleasure you will receive, from a measure 
now in operation with us, I enclose you the copy of an address, 
which was opened yesterday & received in a few hours 150 
names. A Committee of 36 persons, such as Jones, Davis, 
Parsons, Dawes, Higginson &c are to hand it round tomorrow 
— it seems to unite all parties, except such as we shou'd feel dis- 
graced in having with us even in a good cause. I think it prob- 
able, that after we get the strength of the Town pledged in this 
way, it will get the finishing stroke by a Town Meeting, when 
perhaps the Town will invite our fellow Citizens in the Country 
to adopt a similar measure. It is a melancholy concession to 
make, that our government has need of this sort of aid, but as 
we cannot deny the fact it is a duty in us to give it. 

You may recollect the Knot of Jacobinism, which was con- 
centrated at Sam. Turells shop in State street, with C. Mar- 
shall at the head — these same people have volunteered in 
signing & forwarding this measure. 

I congratulate you most heartily on the very general satis- 
faction, which your letter to Heath has given — the Chronicle 



THE CRISIS OF 1798 95 

of tomorrow, says handsome things about it, which to be sure is 
rather against it, but we are all open to this vehicle of scandal, 
& therefore if they do praise you, you must bear it with forti- 
tude, & hope, that the public in general will not believe you have 
given them cause, to be serious, it has meet the united approba- 
tion of the Federal party, & done much good with those who 
were luke warm. You have given the Good man such a dose of 
the "oyl of fool," as has satisfyed his vanity, and I have no 
doubt secured his good opinion. I sat down to write you three 
words & I have got almost to the bottom of the third page of 
my paper therefore must say good night, as I am to see the 
committee to take measures for the morning. 

With much regard Always your friend 
T Handasyd Perkins. 

JONATHAN MASON, JR., TO OTIS 

Boston May 3d 1798 

. . . With us we have nothing to say new at present. We 
look to you at Philadelphia for the mode in which the true 
American Character & Spirit is to display itself to the eyes 
not only of France but all Europe. Hitherto we have had no 
reason to be ashamed of it, & I hope the damn'd Cankerworm 
that now feeds upon our vitals will not blast in our manhood, 
what we acquired when only in infancy. This dispute is not to 
end in Smash only. We must have a brush with the gentlemen, 
unless a new administration when in power will undertake to 
punish these flagellators of all Europe. I pray God, for a speedy 
succession, & that the Fact may take place. 

Yrs 

J Mason Jr. 

JONATHAN MASON, JR., TO OTIS 

Boston May 28. 1798 

... In New England we sail full as fast as you do in Phila- 
delphia. It does not take us a month to make an alien bill, 
or raise a Provisional army. We have a large majority that are 
inclined to do all those things heartily. War for a time we must 
have, & our fears to the Northward are, that you will cripple 



96 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

the Executive — that you will rise without a proper climax. 
Our Commissioners are in jeopardy. True but they have al- 
ready said & done eno' with your assistance to loose not only 
their liberty but their Heads, if the French Directory thirst 
after the blood of three poor defenceless citizens. Therefore it 
is now to be wished, that Congress under those apprehensions, 
will not leave anything undone that ought to be done, & we 
pray that decisive orders may be given & that accussed Treaty 
may be annulled. If we are to fight & cannot run, Custom has 
made it necessary, that we should season our Conduct, with a 
proper proportion of Crowing. The time is now passed, when 
we should fear giving offence. There has been a moment, when 
we have suspended principles, & even parted with them for the 
sake of peace, but that Conduct has brought upon us Insult & 
injury. As to Union among ourselves, I speak of my own State, 
there never was a greater. Thro' out our Country, the Yeo- 
manry are not only united but spirited — if any thing, forward 
of the Seaports. There never can be a greater conviction take 
place, & there is no jacobin now existing, that would not be 
the selfsame base creature, were the French in possession of the 
Capital. Our elections for Representatives, tho not the most 
able, are decidedly federal & the droping of Dr. Efustis] has 
laid the party completely prostrate. In private life a manly, 
clever fellow, but in Politicks, Insane. Harder for him in this 
situation to do a right thing, than in the other, a wrong one — 
every opening was tendered to him, every delicate mode made 
use of, & Interviews solicited, but all to no purpose, & he must 
either fall, or upon the seat there must be at least a luke warm 
friend, perhaps an open enemy, & him, a leader. His resolu- 
tions & measures were accordingly adopted & effected. The 
Legislature will forward you a handsome, spirited address & 
nearly unanimous. As to private news or scandal we have none. 
To morrow, Increase 25 will be in his robes, & Mr. Bobo, as was 
once before said, tho' perhaps not upon a more dignified occa- 
sion, up to his in business. What more will you have? 

Our bank House is going on swimmingly — if it needs a shove, 
push it for God's sake, for instead of thirty, it will cost sixty 
thousand dollars. . . . 

25 Increase Sumner, Governor of Massachusetts. 



CHAPTER VII 

DEFENSE AND REPRISAL 

1798, jet. 32 

The news revealed by the publication of the X. Y. Z. 
dispatches called for no change in Federalist policy. It 
simply demonstrated that such measures as Adams and 
Hamilton and Harper and Otis had been urging for the 
past year, were absolutely necessary to defend the na- 
tion's commerce, and to vindicate its honor. There was 
no need to declare war on France. The first impulse, 
indeed, of an ardent Federalist, on reading of the out- 
rageous treatment of our envoys in Paris, and the in- 
solent threats of the "fate of Venice," must have been 
warlike. We have the authority of Jefferson's Anas (his 
private diary of fugitive political gossip) , quoting Otis as 
one of his sources of information, that the propriety of 
declaring war was debated in a caucus of Federalist 
Congressmen, and defeated by a majority of five. 1 Otis 
was probably one of the minority. Although he depre- 
cated war previous to the month of April, 2 he later 

1 Jefferson, Works, rx, 195-96. The Anas, on this point, is more trust- 
worthy than usual, since Jefferson's information, though third-hand, came from 
three different sources, including Otis. The time when the caucus is held is 
simply indicated as "during the X. Y. Z. Congress"; it may, therefore, have 
taken place at any time before March, 1799. The Philadelphia Aurora, a 
source even less trustworthy than Jefferson's Anas, reported in 1800 that seven- 
teen Federalist Senators held a caucus at the Bingham mansion in the summer 
of 1798, and agreed that all present should pledge themselves to act firmly 
upon the measures agreed upon by the majority present. M. Ostrogorski, in 
Amer. Hist. Rev., v, 259. John Adams refers to "nocturnal caucuses at the 
pompous Mansion House," in a letter to Otis of April 4, 1823. Cf. Annals 
Fifth Cong., 2629. 

2 "Whether Great Britain is doomed to yield to the arms & politicks of 
France, or whether the five Kings will squabble with each other, so that 



98 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

expressed the opinion that Congress made a mistake in 
failing to declare war during its second session. 

To initiate a war policy at that time, however, would 
have been foolhardy from a political viewpoint, and 
useless from a military viewpoint. If war must come, 
the tactical advantage of its declaration by France was 
obvious. In that event the Republican party could con- 
tinue its opposition only at the cost of political suicide. 
For military purposes a system of home defense and 
naval reprisals was sufficient to protect American com- 
merce from French spoliation, and prepare the country 
for a possible French invasion. This policy had the merit 
of uniting the Federal party: the moderates supported it, 
as the only way of avoiding hostilities consistent with 
national self-respect ; and the war Federalists, who counted 
on a declaration of war from France, were satisfied with 
its provisions. 3 The French government, moreover, could 
reply in but one of two ways, either by declaring war, 
or, as actually happened, by showing a disposition to 
respect our claims. But for the fatal incubus of Alien 
and Sedition Acts that they added to this system, the 
men responsible for it would receive our unqualified 
admiration as politicians and statesmen. 

Spurred on by the voice of the nation, by addresses 
from their constituents, and by spirited messages from 
the President, Otis and Harper had little difficulty in 

'honest men may come to their dues,' are events shrouded from our foresight. 
I shall bear either of them with Christian Fortitude, if our own Country 
can be permitted to remain at peace." Otis to Mercy Warren, March 15, 
1798. Warren MSS. 

3 George Cabot wrote Rufus King, February 16, 1799, referring to the mea- 
sures of the last session: "Genl Marshall [who returned in June] unfortunately 
held the decided opinion that France would declare war when the Dispatches 
shou'd appear: & T. Sewell with other good men were so strongly impressed 
with the advantage of such a declaration by them that they cou'd not be per- 
suaded to relinquish the belief in it — I was astonished that they should have 
attributed to the French such miserable policy." King, u, 543. 



DEFENSE AND REPRISAL 99 

pushing through Congress a plan of defense and reprisal. 
Although the root-and-branch Federalists of the Essex 
Junto still complained of the slow movement of this 
"twaddling, whiffling Congress," 4 it seemed a different 
legislature from the timid, vacillating body of the past 
winter and spring. Dayton and the waverers came back 
into line, and the party caucus made all Federalists pull 
together. The Republicans were dismayed. "The oppo- 
sition in our house appears at present so disconcerted," 
writes Otis (April 14), "that we proceed in business with 
less difficulty than formerly." A week later, disheartened 
at the Federalists' strength, opposition members from 
Virginia and Kentucky began to slip away from Phila- 
delphia, in order to kindle a back fire of state rights 
against the Federalist system. Gallatin and Macon still 
led the opposition, still opposed with a zeal worthy of a 
better cause, every measure for national defense or retal- 
iation against France. They were, however, no longer 
dangerous. With a normal Federalist majority during 
the remainder of the session of ten to fifteen votes, Otis 
and Harper were given full swing. 

Back of Congress and the Executive stood Alexander 
Hamilton, ruling the Federal party, and through it the 
nation, from his law office in New York. Almost every 
act of the session may be traced to his letters. 5 On Otis 
and Harper fell the task of turning his recommendations 
into bills, and pushing them through. Jefferson gives us 

« Gibbs, ii, 70. 

6 See especially his Works, vi, 270, 295, and B. C. Steiner, McEenry, 291- 
95. The President would submit to the Cabinet a set of questions as to the best 
policy to follow in a given case, and the Hamiltonian members, Pickering, 
Wolcott, and McHenry, would procure Hamilton's views and submit them to 
the President as their own. Through the same channel Hamilton's opinions 
were probably communicated to Congress. Cf . Harper's resolutions of July 3, 
1798 (Annals of Fifth Congress, 2084) with Hamilton's "further measures to 
be taken without delay" of June 5 (Works, vi, 295). 



100 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

in his Anas a glimpse of the process during an incipient 
deal between Otis and Rutledge for measures satisfactory 
to their respective sections. Rutledge, according to this 
story, was discussing plans with another member from 
South Carolina, when Otis came in. "Rutledge addressed 
Otis. Now, Sir, says he, you must come forward with 
something liberal for the Southern States, fortify their 
harbors, and build gallies, in order to obtain their con- 
currence. Otis said, we insist on convoys for our Euro- 
pean trade, and guarda costas, on which condition alone 
we will give them gallies and fortifications." 6 Seeing that 
ten "gallies," light draught vessels for coast defense, were 
provided for in an act of this session, we may believe 
Jefferson's story. 

The most essential part of the Federalist defensive 
programme was to create a navy. Otis, by his oratory and 
his vote, helped to pass measures authorizing the Presi- 
dent to purchase six vessels of thirty-two guns, twelve 
"twenties," and six "eighteens." A navy department 
was organized, half a million dollars voted for fortifica- 
tions, and over a million for arms, ammunition, and 
materiel. 

Far more important than the naval acts, from the 
political point of view, were the army acts, because they 
afforded the opposition a powerful lever to operate on 
popular prejudice. The regular army was increased to a 
temporary total of thirteen thousand, "for and during 
the continuance of the present difficulties with France." 
The President was authorized to accept the services of 
volunteer troops, paying their own expenses, to be called 
upon when needed. Gallatin denounced this scheme as 
class legislation, as an exclusive privilege to young men 
of wealth. "Does the gentleman suppose that none but 

8 Jefferson, Works, ix, 192. 



DEFENSE AND REPRISAL 101 

the sons of the wealthy will turn out in defence of their 
country?" replied Otis. Most prominent, however, in 
the military legislation was the Provisional Army Act, of 
May 28, 1798. 

According to this law the President, in case of a declar- 
ation of war against the United States, or of imminent 
danger of invasion before the next session of Congress, 
might recruit ten thousand men for three years' service. 
The officers were to receive their appointments immedi- 
ately, but to draw no pay until actually called into serv- 
ice. The bill, originating in the Senate, was immediately 
denounced by Nicholas and Gallatin on its appearance in 
the House. In their estimation no increase of military 
force was necessary when militia was available, and 
further the bill provided an unconstitutional transfer of 
legislative power to the Executive. The spectre of a 
standing army, words that still held unpleasant memories 
for Anglo-Saxons, was conjured up. Otis undertook to 
answer all these objections. He had, he insisted, a high 
opinion of our militia, but he was surprised to hear that 
it would be an efficient defense against the veteran troops 
of the French Republic. If the Revolution had taught 
us one military lesson, it was that militia could not be 
relied upon for steady military operations. He reiterated 
the arguments contained in his letter to General Heath, 
concerning the possibility of a French invasion, and 
pointed out that it would be natural for France to con- 
ceive that she had the power of invasion, if we should 
decline to raise any force to meet her. It was worth a 
hundred times the expense of raising the provisional 
army to change foreign opinion of our weakness, and he, 
for one, wished that provision had been made for fifty 
thousand instead of for ten thousand men. As for the 
constitutional objection, Otis considered it "no time for 



102 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

nice constitutional scruples. No army can be raised 
without giving the President a certain amount of power." 

Republican opposition on this ground was simply due 
to fear of executive power, when wielded by a Federalist 
President. The Provisional Army Act was, in fact, a close 
parallel to the Militia Act of 1795, the constitutionality 
of which was unquestioned, and the imputation that it 
created a standing army was without foundation. The 
measure provided for merely a paper army, a skeleton 
army. As Otis said, in debate, the bill "only declares 
that if existing circumstances shall make it necessary, 
then the President shall raise an army not exceeding a 
certain number of men. It may happen that the necessity 
may not exist; but the gentleman from Virginia must be 
able to fathom the intentions of France further than I can 
pretend to do, if he can say that no such necessity can 
exist. If what was said by the agents of that Government 
to our Envoys can be relied on, there is a direct threat to 
ravage our coasts." 

Another and more serious charge against the Army 
Acts of 1798 would scarcely be worth refuting, but for its 
acceptance by an eminent modern historian. 7 This 
indictment, that the regular and provisional armies were 
designed primarily to suppress democracy, and not to 
protect the country against France, is not supported by 
the slightest evidence. The motive of the measure clearly 
lay in the Federalists' fear of a French invasion, as ex- 
pressed by Otis in his letter to General Heath, — a fear 
that was groundless, as subsequent events showed, but 
perfectly genuine. It is true that the threatened rebellion 
in Virginia and Kentucky in 1799 postponed the reduc- 
tion of the regular army to a peace footing, and that 
Hamilton later desired to use the army for purposes of 

T Henry Adams, Gallatin, 199, 211. 



DEFENSE AND REPRISAL 103 

conquest and personal glory; but the statement that the 
army acts were conceived for dragonnading is entirely 
unfounded. 8 The regular army never reached its legal 
limit, and the provisional army never passed the skeleton 
stage; but both measures acted with salutary effect on 
the French government, by showing that America had 
both the spirit and the means to defend herself. Politi- 
cally, however, the army act resulted unfortunately for 
Otis and his party. Because no French invasion ever 
took place, Republican leaders and editors were able to 
convince thousands that the "standing army" of 1798 
was designed to enforce the Sedition Act, and to crush 
out personal liberty. 

In order to meet the necessary increase of expenditure, 
a direct tax was levied on houses and slaves. By a some- 
what clumsy classification the rate of taxation on houses 
was made progressive — increasing from one fifth of one 
per cent for a house valued at five hundred dollars to one 
per cent for a house valued at thirty thousand dollars. 
In the debate on this measure, on June 26, we have the 
interesting spectacle of two Democrats in the opposition, 
Samuel Smith and Edward Livingston, who insisted that 
the progressive principle was too hard on the well-to-do, 
while Otis, a large real-estate owner himself and a mem- 
ber of the supposed aristocratic party, defended a pro- 
gressive increase of rates, on the ground that good houses 
are a better criterion of the wealth of their owners than 
any other form of property. 9 In the end, most of the 
Republicans and all the Federalists voted for the bill. 
Although carefully planned to make the burden of taxa- 
tion fall on those who were best able to bear it, this direct 

8 It is interesting to find that similar charges were made by Fox and Sheri- 
dan and the English democratic clubs against William Pitt at this period. 
J. Holland Rose, William Pitt and the Great War, 284, 510. 

9 Annals of Fifth Congress, 2053-57. 



104 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

tax produced a small insurrection in Pennsylvania, and 
became in the public mind an engine of Federalist oppres- 
sion. 

The second portion of the Federalist programme was 
to retaliate in kind against French spoliations. All ves- 
sels flying the American flag, whether merchant vessels, 
privateers, or men-of-war, were authorized by Congress 
to capture French armed vessels, and to recapture their 
American prizes. Commercial intercourse with France 
was suspended, and the Treaty of 1778, which the French 
had long since ceased to observe, was denounced. Otis, 
who early in the session expressed himself as opposed to 
half-way measures, constantly defended these policies in 
debate, while the opposition protested at every step. By 
the end of the session, July 16, 1798, Congress had created 
a state of quasi-naval war, differing only from an actual 
declared war in that Frenchmen were not proclaimed pub- 
lic enemies, and the capture of unarmed vessels was not 
permitted. During the two and one half years that 
elapsed before the Republic came to terms, our infant 
navy rescued American commerce from the harassing 
depredations of the French privateers, and worsted many 
a French national ship in single combat. For this glori- 
ous result of his favorite policy, President Adams de- 
serves the much-disputed title of "Father of the Ameri- 
can Navy." When he became President, there was no 
American navy. During his administration, as he boasted 
in his old age, "I humbled the French Directory as much 
as all Europe has humbled Bonaparte. ... I built frig- 
ates, manned a navy, and selected officers with great 
anxiety and care, who perfectly protected our commerce, 
and gained virgin victories against the French, and who 
afterwards acquired such laurels in the Mediterranean 
and who have lately emblazoned themselves and their 



DEFENSE AND REPRISAL 105 

country with a naval glory, which I tremble to think 
of." 10 Otis was equally proud of his services, in pushing 
through Congress, against the violent opposition of the 
Democracy, this naval policy which made the Stars and 
Stripes a terror to the Tricolor, and trained the ships and 
sea-fighters that humbled the Union Jack in 1812. 

10 John Adams, Works, x, 152. 



CHAPTER VIII 

A SYSTEM OF TERROR 
1798, 2ET. 32 

The measures of defense and retaliation, described in 
the foregoing chapter, are the bright side of the Federalist 
system of 1798. Prompted by a legitimate and patriotic 
desire to force French policy into the open, the party 
admirably succeeded in its purpose, and brought self- 
respect to the American government and people. On the 
other side, we have the Alien and Sedition Acts, induced 
by a spirit of hysteria and political intolerance, which 
proved fatal to their authors. Under this title are in- 
cluded the Naturalization Act of June 18, 1798, the Act 
Concerning Aliens of June 25, the Act Respecting Alien 
Enemies of July 6, and the Act for the Punishment of 
Certain Crimes (Sedition Act) of July 14. The two Alien 
Acts were justifiable, though unnecessary, measures of 
self-defense against French spies and intrigants, but the 
Naturalization and Sedition Laws belong to a different 
category. Designed primarily not for defense against a 
foreign power, but for offense against the Democratic 
party, they were calculated to rob that party of an im- 
portant element of its vote, and to make political oppo- 
sition to Federalism a crime. They were the principal 
cause of the Federalist defeat in 1800. Harrison Gray 
Otis, who was responsible as much as any man for their 
passage, always defended the principles of these laws, 
and must therefore share their obloquy. 

First of these measures to reach enactment was the 



A SYSTEM OF TERROR 107 

Naturalization Act, extending from five to nineteen 
years the period of residence necessary for aliens who 
wished to become naturalized. The reason for this move 
on the part of the Federalists was obvious, — the Repub- 
lican party was absorbing the foreign vote. Originally 
the Federalists had no objection to speedy naturalization, 
but after the French Revolution they repented their 
early liberality. From 1792 on, Europe outside France 
became an uncomfortable place for French sympathizers 
and Republicans, and a stream of Irish, Scotch, and 
German malcontents began to flow into the United 
States. These classes naturally spurned the party of 
conservatism and privilege, and, as soon as they became 
naturalized, joined the party that stood for Gallomania 
and democracy. By 1798 the alliance between native 
democracy and the Irish vote, which has endured to 
this day,' was already cemented. The apprehension of 
his party is reflected in a remark of Otis in a letter to his 
wife: "If some means are not adopted to prevent the 
indiscriminate admission of wild Irishmen & others to 
the right of suffrage, there will soon be an end to liberty 
& property." * 

Modern conservative parties have met a similar situa- 
tion by attempting to outbid their opponents for the 
foreign vote through flattery and corruption. The 

1 There is a delightful example of this same attitude in a letter of Uriah 
Tracy of Connecticut, dated August 7, 1800: "In my lengthy journey through 
this state [Pennsylvania] I have seen many, very many, Irishmen, and with a 
very few exceptions, they are United Irishmen, Free Masons, and the most 
God-provoking Democrats on this side of Hell." — Gibbs, n, 399. In 1798, 
Rufus King, the American minister in London, exerted his influence success- 
fully with the British government to prevent Irish political exiles from being 
sent to the United States. He distinctly avowed that the Irish were not 
wanted, "because a large proportion of the emigrants from Ireland, and 
especially in our middle states, has upon this occasion arranged itself upon the 
side of the malcontents." The complete correspondence on this incident may 
be found in C. R. King's Rufus King, n, 635-49. 



108 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

Federal party was more self-respecting and more direct. 
It determined to strike the evil at its roots, and destroy 
the foreign vote. This purpose was first distinctly avowed 
by Otis, in the first session of the Fifth Congress. He 
undertook, on July 1, 1797, to defend a proposed tax 
of twenty dollars on certificates of naturalization. The 
opposition immediately charged that the object of this 
resolve was not to raise revenue, but to restrict immigra- 
tion. Otis acknowledged the charge, and defended the 
proposition in a notable speech. After an attack on the 
French Revolution, he remarked: 

The Amendment will not affect those men who already have 
lands in this country, nor the deserving part of those who may 
seek an asylum in it. Persons of that description can easily pay 
the tax; but it will tend to foreclose the mass of vicious and dis- 
organizing characters who can not live peaceably at home, and 
who, after unfurling the standard of rebellion in their own coun- 
tries, may come hither to revolutionize ours. I feel every dis- 
position to respect those honest and industrious people. . . . 
who have become citizens . . . but I do not wish to invite 
hordes of wild Irishmen, nor the turbulent and disorderly of all 
parts of the world, to come here with a view to disturb our 
tranquillity, after having succeeded in the overthrow of their 
own Governments. 

This effusion, dubbed "Otis's Wild Irish Speech," 
caused much comment in the party press. 2 Otis, never- 
theless, did not secure his object, for the twenty-dollar 
proposition failed to pass. 

When the publication of the X. Y. Z. dispatches, on 

2 It even brought forth a piece of political doggerel entitled "An Irish 

Epistle to H. G. Otis," one stanza of which is not bad: 

" Young man. We would have you remember 
While we in this country can tarry, 
The ' Wild Irish ' will choose a new member 
And will ne 'er vote again for young llarry." 

Otis was finally driven to an explanation that by "wild Irishmen" he did 
not mean the whole Irish nation. 



A SYSTEM OF ^TERROR 109 

April 5, 1798, gave them the undisputed mastery of the 
House, the Federalists did not wait long before restricting 
the enfranchisement of immigrants in a much more 
direct manner. The first step in the Alien and Sedition 
system was taken on April 19, by referring the question 
of amending the old Naturalization Act to a committee, 
which simply recommended a prolongation of the aliens' 
term of residence before naturalization. This suggestion 
failed to satisfy Harper and Otis. The former asserted, 
"the time is now come when it will be proper to 
declare, that nothing but birth shall entitle a man to 
citizenship in this country." Otis proposed to substitute 
for the committee report, a resolution "that no alien 
born, who is not at present a citizen of the United States, 
shall hereafter be capable of holding any office of honor, 
trust, or profit, under the United States," to which 
Harper wished to add, "or of voting at the election of 
any member of the Legislature of the United States, or 
of any State." These propositions, if adopted as law, 
would certainly have accomplished their object in de- 
stroying the Republicans' foreign vote, and in prevent- 
ing future Matthew Lyons and Albert Gallatins from 
exercising their talents in a manner inimical to Feder- 
alism. Seldom has so barefaced an attempt to injure a 
political party been made in Congress. Otis's proposition 
was much too high-toned for most of his party, one 
member of which persuaded him to withdraw it, as un- 
constitutional. 3 But the legislature of his native state 
stamped his policy with its approval, when three months 
later it proposed to amend the Constitution by excluding 
foreign-born citizens from the House and Senate. 

1 Annals, 1573. In 1798, no one supposed that Congress had the power to 
alter the qualifications for membership prescribed in the Constitution. After 
the Civil War, however, there was no question about this prerogative. 



110 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

After Otis's resolution was withdrawn, the House 
returned to the original proposition of restricting natu- 
ralization. A bill was finally drawn up, in which fourteen 
years was adopted as the minimum residence for an 
alien before making application for citizenship, with five 
years additional before naturalization. This became on 
June 18, 1798, the Naturalization Act, which, until its 
repeal in 1802, deprived the Republican party of its 
usual accessions of foreign-born voters. Otis, however, 
never forsook his Native American policy; we shall see 
his disqualifying proposition reappear in his Report of 
the Hartford Convention. 

The Naturalization Act was a political manoeuvre pure 
and simple, but the two Alien Acts, which form the next 
steps of the Alien and Sedition system, arose from differ- 
ent motives. Their basis lay in a Federalist notion that 
the country was filled with dangerous Frenchmen. 
There was in fact, a considerable body of proscribed 
Jacobins in the country, and French agents had been 
caught in the act of stirring up sedition on the Western 
and Northern frontiers. After the X. Y. Z. dispatches 
were published, the Federal party wrought itself up into 
an extreme form of Gallophobia that constantly reminds 
one of the days of the Popish Plot, or the recent hysteria 
in England over German waiters. It was commonly 
supposed that the United States contained over thirty 
thousand Frenchmen, constantly engaged in intrigues 
against the government, and ready in case of invasion to 
rise as one man and murder their hosts. Some would-be 
Titus Oates was continually coming forward, in 1798 
and 1799, with a tale of a deep-laid plot. President 
Adams, for instance, was informed anonymously that 
the Frenchmen in Philadelphia were planning on May 9, 
1798, the day of national fast, to destroy Philadelphia 



A SYSTEM OF TERROR 111 

by fire, and to massacre the inhabitants. 4 Although this 
Federalist panic reached its height in 1799, it had gone 
far enough by May, 1798, to warrant the hustling of all 
Frenchmen out of the country. How far the paroxysm 
had affected Otis may be judged by a perfervid speech 
he delivered during the debate on June 16, 1798: 

In my humble opinion, there is greater danger from this source 
than from any other. I believe that it has been owing to this 
cause that all the Republics in Europe have been laid prostrate 
in the dust; it is this system which has enabled the French to 
overleap all natural and artificial obstructions; to subjugate 
Holland and Italy; to destroy the Helvetic Confederacy, and 
to force a passage through rocks and mountains, which have 
been for ages sacred to the defense of liberty; it is this system 
which has watered the tomb of William Tell with the blood of 
widows fighting over their slaughtered husbands, and with the 
tears of orphans who survive to swell the procession of the vic- 
tors. . . . The European Republics . . . boasted of their 
patriotism and courage, . . . yet when the hour of trial ar- 
rived, it appeared that secret corruptions and foreign influence 
had completed their work; upon the slightest shock, those 
Republics crumbled into fragments. 

This general state of mind inspired the Alien Acts, 
rendering every alien in the United States subject to 
arbitrary arrest and expulsion. So far the responsibility 
for this legislation has not been fixed upon any one in- 
dividual or group in the Federal party, but doubtless its 
passage was suggested by contemporary legislation in 
Great Britain. There is, in fact, a certain rough par- 
allel at this period between the problems of the govern- 
ing classes in England and the United States, and in the 
solutions attempted. In 1798, both England and the 
United States were threatened by a French invasion. 
The one country was at war with France, the other on 

« Adams MSS., "Gea. Cor., J. A., 1797-98," 173, 175. 



112 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

the brink of it. In both countries existed a large body of 
French sympathizers, who strengthened the ranks of the 
opposition, and who, it was believed, were stimulated 
by French emissaries. William Pitt met these difficulties 
by coercive legislation, directed both at foreign spies and 
domestic conspirators. 5 The Act of Congress "Concern- 
ing Aliens," in 1798, bears so marked a resemblance to 
Pitt's Aliens Act of 1793, which had just been renewed, 
that one is forced to the conclusion that Otis and his 
colleagues were taking a leaf out of the experience of the 
great English statesman. 6 

The subject of aliens was taken up by the House of 
Representatives on May 3, when Otis, attempting to 
hasten matters with a vigorous speech, insisted the time 
had come "to take up that crowd of spies and inflam- 
matory agents which overspread the country like the 
locusts of Egypt." "Something ought to be done which 
would strike these people with terror," he said — "I do 
not desire ... to boggle about slight forms, nor to pay 
respect to treaties already abrogated, but to seize these 
persons, wherever they can be found carrying on their 
vile purposes." In due time a bill was reported, which, 
much to Otis's disappointment, was restricted in its 
operation to time of declared war. 7 The Senate, however, 
had already supplied the deficiency. In that body a 
"Bill Concerning Aliens" had been under consideration 
since April; it was passed on June 8 and sent down to the 

6 Cf. Mr. Rose's chapter on "The British Jacobins," and pp. 282-87. 333, 
349-50, of his Pitt and the Great War. 

6 The provisions of the British Aliens Act that reappear in the American 
Alien Act of 1798 are the method of expulsion, the system of licenses, and the 
requirement that masters of entering vessels must report the names and 
descriptions of all aliens on board. The British law provided a death penalty 
for aliens who returned after expulsion. 

7 This bill became the Act Concerning Alien Enemies; a superfluous meas- 
ure, and never put in force because formal war was never declared before its 
expiration. 



A SYSTEM OF TERROR 113 

House. It gave federal courts cognizance of all offenses 
under it. The President was authorized to order out of 
the United States an alien whom he considered danger- 
ous, after examination by a magistrate. Any alien thus 
ordered to depart might be given a license to remain, on 
proving, to the President's satisfaction, his good char- 
acter and behavior. For failure to comply with an order 
of expulsion, he must be tried before a federal court, the 
whole machinery of enforcement being thus safeguarded 
from state interference. The penalty for an alien's 
return, after being expelled, was life imprisonment, but 
this harsh provision was struck out in the House. Otis 
proposed an amendment, which was adopted, declaring 
that an expelled alien could take with him his personal 
property, and that any property left in this country 
should remain subject to his disposal. This provision 
was so far in advance of contemporary European 
legislation that it was widely commented upon, and re- 
flected great credit on its author. One of his friends 
wrote from Paris: "The clause which you caused to be 
introduced into the Alien bill . . . has been published 
here in all the papers, it is spoken of in the highest terms 
of praise, and has done you much honor & your country 
important services at this moment." 8 As thus amended, 
the Senate Alien Bill passed the House by a vote of 
forty-six to forty, and became law on June 25, 1798. 

The Alien Act has received universal abuse from 
politicians and historians to this day. Impolitic the 
measure certainly was, in the light of the antagonism it 
aroused; unnecessary it proved to be, since it was never 

8 Richard Codman to Otis, August 26, 1798. The Centinel of October 31, 
1798, quotes a paragraph from the Paris V Ami des Lois, 2 Fructidor, An VI, 
commending Otis's amendment, and adds, "We are well assured that this 
liberal and judicious provision had a great influence in obtaining a repeal of 
the Embargo on American vessels." 



114 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

enforced; but constitutional it certainly was, and a 
proper measure of precaution in the contemporary state 
of foreign relations. The leading arguments presented 
against its constitutionality, both in the House debate, 
and in the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, are as 
follows: (1) The power to expel alien friends, not being 
delegated to the United States, is reserved to the state 
governments. (2) The act was contrary to that article of 
the Constitution, which states that "the migration and 
importation of such persons as any of the States now 
existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be pro- 
hibited by the Congress prior to the year 1808." (3) The 
summary administrative process of expulsion infringed 
the "due process of law" provision of the Bill of Rights. 
To these objections Otis and his Federalist colleagues 
answered: (1) That, since the power to expel' aliens 
resides somewhere in every nation, any common-sense 
construction of the Constitution must regard it as im- 
plied under the treaty-making power of the federal 
government. To leave the power of expulsion to the 
states would produce a strange state of affairs. "What 
will be our situation," said Otis, "if any one of the States 
may retain a number of men whose residence shall be 
proveably dangerous to the United States?" (2) The 
"migration and importation" clause was placed in the 
Constitution, as every one at the time knew, in order to 
prevent interference with the slave trade. (3) The Alien 
Act contemplated a crime, for which "due process of 
law" was necessary, only if an alien returned after ex- 
pulsion, in which case a jury trial was provided. 9 As for 

9 Argument of William Gordon of New Hampshire, Annals, 1984. Cf. W. A 
Sutherland, Notes on the Constitution, 648: "The deportation of Aliens is not a 
punishment nor is it a deprivation of liberty without due process of law." All 
these arguments will he found repeated in the various published defenses of the 
Alien and Sedition Acts. 



A SYSTEM OF TERROR 115 

the expediency of the Act, it proved unnecessary, and was 
never enforced; but, intended only for use in emergencies, 
it was a proper method of precaution with war impend- 
ing. Even before its passage, a large number of French- 
men hastily left the country, indicating that their con- 
sciences, at least, were guilty. That the Alien Act should 
inflame every one of Democratic tendencies was a matter 
of course, for it was aimed chiefly at Frenchmen, it 
extended the power of the Executive, and, in the provi- 
sion requiring the registration of immigrants, it put on 
immigration the first restraint known to federal legis- 
lation. But latter-day criticism of it as an arbitrary and 
unconstitutional measure seems a little out of date, since 
the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act. The decision 
of the Supreme Court supporting this recent law simply 
repeats Otis's old arguments, and completely justifies, 
from a constitutional standpoint, the alien legislation of 
1798. 10 

At the apex of the Alien and Sedition legislation stands 
the Sedition Act of July 14, 1798. No act of Congress has 
ever attracted so much well-merited odium, or proved so 
fatal to its authors, as that unhappy law. It stands out 
unparalleled in American legislation as a thinly disguised 
attempt to treat political opposition as a crime, and to 
stamp criticism of a party as sedition. In his advocacy 
of it Otis committed, except for his promotion of the 
Hartford Convention, the worst mistake of his political 
career. 

10 "The right to exclude or expel all aliens, or any class of aliens, absolutely 
or upon certain conditions, in war or in peace, being an inherent and inalienable 
right of every sovereign and independent nation, essential to its safety, its 
independence, and its welfare, and being a power affecting international rela- 
tions, is vested in the political departments of the government, and is to be 
regulated by treaty or by Act of Congress, and to be executed by the executive 
authority according to the regulations established." 149 U. S. Reports, 698 
(Fong Yue Ting v. United States). 



116 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

As with the Alien Act, it is well-nigh impossible to fix 
individual responsibility for the Sedition Act, 11 but its 
motives clearly lay in Federalist intolerance and fear of 
criticism, stimulated by the example of the British gov- 
ernment. There is no doubt that the authors of the 
Sedition Act desired to muzzle the opposition press ; and 
their provocation was great. The Aurora and its imitators 
were constantly telling their readers that the Federalists 
had picked a quarrel with France in order to raise a 
standing army, form a British alliance, and establish a 
monarchy. General attacks on the Federalist system 
were varied by gross assaults on individual characters. 
But William Cobbett's Porcupine's Gazette was a more 
than sufficient antidote to the scurrility of the Aurora, 
and Otis and his friends failed to see that an open and 
free discussion was the only way to meet attacks on their 
good faith. They were blind to Lord Bacon's wise 
maxim: "The punishing of wits enhances their authority, 
and a forbidden writing is thought to be a certain spark 
of truth that flies up in the face of them that seek to 
tread it." 

Intolerance, however, was not the sole motive of the 
Sedition Act. The Federalists wished to strike at an 
aspect of French policy which seemed to them most 
dangerous. This was what President Adams called "a 
disposition to separate the people of the United States 
from their government," 12 — a sort of propaganda that 

11 No hint as to its origin appears in the Otis papers, or in any of the 
printed or manuscript correspondence that I have examined, excepting in a 
letter of May 2, 1798, in the Adams MSS., from Dr. Cotton Tufts of 
Weymouth, Massachusetts, to the President, urging that a Sedition Law be 
passed. 

12 Message of May 16, 1797. Otis states, in his Letter to William Heath (p. 
24), "The object, Sir, of the present Directory, is to divide the people from the 
government, and subdivide the people from each other. You are assured of 
this by our Envoys; ... by their envoys uniform and repeated appeals to the 



A SYSTEM OF TERROR 117 

had been a right hand to French policy in Europe, and 
with which America had been threatened in more than 
one communication from the Directory. To the ardent 
Federalist of 1798, every Jacobin squib was a manifes- 
tation of this "novel and alarming principle, the art of 
separating the people of every nation from their govern- 
ment, . . . the most important engine of disorganization 
and anarchy ever invented by the ingenuity of man." 13 
On all sides he saw "sedition, privy conspiracy, and 
rebellion," and consequently reacted toward the good 
old doctrine, so comfortable to governments, of passive 
obedience. For examples of precautionary measures it 
was only necessary to turn to Great Britain. England 
needed no general Sedition Act, for sedition was cogniz- 
able under her common law; but the ministry of Pitt had 
been marked by drastic proclamations and laws against 

people." A Federal grand jury in Virginia, as early as May, 1797, presented 
"as a real evil, the circular letters of several members of the late Congress, and 
particularly letters with the signature of Samuel J. Cabell, endeavoring, at a 
time of real public danger, to disseminate unfounded calumnies against the 
happy government of the United States, and thereby to separate the people 
therefrom, and increase or produce a foreign influence, ruinous to the peace, 
happiness, and independence of the United States" — cited in the Life of 
Jefferson, n, 376, by H. S. Randall, who calls it "the first note of the Sedition 
Act." The same attitude is shown by Otis, in the debate, May 15, 1798, on the 
petition of Captain Magnien's Grenadiers, a militia company of Portsmouth, 
Virginia. The petition, which is an excellent example of the doctrines funda- 
mentally opposed to Federalism, states: "We view with extreme concern the 
attempts that are evidently making by men high in authority to widen the 
breach between the United States and the French Republic, by holding up to 
the good people of these States the late unworthy propositions of certain 
unauthorized persons at Paris, as the act of the French government, when in 
reality, the face of the despatches cannot warrant any such conclusions." It 
goes on to accuse the administration of striving "to involve us in all the 
calamities of a war with the most powerful Republic on earth; . . . and ... an 
alliance with a nation which is . . . under the guidance of the most foul and 
corrupt government on earth." Otis remarked, "The solvent of sedition has 
taken possession of the hearts of these addressers, and alienated their affections 
from their government." 

13 Quoted from the reply of the Massachusetts House of Representatives to 
Governor Sumner's speech at the opening of the June session, 1798. 



118 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

seditious writings and meetings, and by judicial decisions 
defining the crime so broadly as to cover ordinary party 
opposition. 14 

The Sedition Bill was introduced in the Senate, passed 
that body on July 5 by a vote of 18 to 6, and was sent 
down to the House. Here the language of the bill was 
considerably altered. The first section, declaring Ameri- 
can adherents of France liable to the death penalty for 
treason, was struck out altogether; and two clauses, 
mitigating considerably the severity of the Senate bill, 
were added. 15 Bayard of Delaware was responsible for a 
praiseworthy amendment permitting a defendant to give 
as evidence the truth of the alleged libel — a privilege 
unknown to the English law, or to that in most of the 
states. 

• One should read the amended Sedition Bill in order 
thoroughly to appreciate it. The second section defines 
as a crime, to be tried before a federal court, the writing, 
printing, or uttering of anything against President or 
Congress with intent "to bring them . . . into contempt 
or disrepute, or to excite against them . . . the hatred of 
the good people of the United States, or to stir up sedi- 

14 J. H. Rose, Pitt and the Great War, 24, 285, chap. vn. Lord Justice Clark 
defined the crime of sedition as "endeavoring to create a dissatisfaction in the 
country, which nobody can tell where it will end. It will very naturally end in 
overt rebellion; and if it has that tendency, though not in the view of the 
parties at the time, yet, if they have been guilty of poisoning the minds of the 
liege, I apprehend that that will constitute the crime of sedition to all intents 
and purposes." State Trials, xxm, 766. 

15 The changes made by the House in the Senate bill, besides those mentioned 
above, were not important. Alexander Johnston states otherwise in his article, 
"Alien and Sedition Acts," in Lalor's Cyclopaedia, with regard to the substitu- 
tion of a new second section, but the words with which he characterizes the 
Senate's second section — "whose intentional looseness and vagueness of 
expression could have made criminal every form of party opposition to the 
federalist party" — apply equally well to the second section of the final Act. 
The only essential difference between the two was the lowering of the penalties. 
Johnston also erred in saying that the Alien Act aroused more opposition than 
the Sedition Act. 



A SYSTEM OF TERROR 119 

tion within the United States," or to excite insurrections 
or to aid hostile designs of a foreign nation. The punish- 
ment for these crimes was to be "a fine not exceeding ten 
thousand dollars, and imprisonment not exceeding two 
years." This section made it possible for federal courts 
to brand ordinary party opposition as a crime. How else 
can unworthy public servants be exposed, but by bring- 
ing them "into contempt or disrepute"? 

Otis from the first took a leading part in the debates 
on the Sedition Bill, and adopted the position of the most 
advanced Federalists. On July 10 occurred the principal 
debate: Otis and Harper against Gallatin and Nicholas. 
Otis delivered one of the best speeches he ever made in 
Congress, a defense of the jurisdiction of the federal 
government over seditious libel; a speech distinguished 
by careful preparation and documentation, and by sound 
and statesmanlike interpretation of the Constitution. 
The objections to the constitutionality of the bill, he 
said, might be reduced to two inquiries: (1) Did the 
Constitution originally give Congress jurisdiction over 
the offenses described in the bill? (2) Did the amend- 
ment to the Constitution, stating that Congress should 
make no law abridging the freedom of the press, take its 
power away? Otis decided the first point emphatically 
in the affirmative : — 

With respect to the first question, it must be allowed that 
every independent government has a right to preserve and de- 
fend itself against injuries and outrages which endanger its 
existence; for, unless it has this power, it is unworthy of the 
name of a free government, and must either fall, or be subor- 
dinate to some other protection. 

He pointed out that Congress had already undertaken 
to punish crimes against the United States, not specified 
in the Constitution, such as perjury, bribery, and stealing 



120 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

public records. 16 In answer to the second question, Otis 
insisted that the bill would not abridge the freedom of 
the press, but merely bridle its licentiousness. He 
referred to Blackstone's famous definition of freedom of 
the press, — freedom from censorship previous to pub- 
lication, not freedom from prosecution for libel, z — and, 
quoting laws and judicial decisions in states which had 
freedom of the press clauses in their constitutions, he 
demonstrated that Blackstone's definition had always 
prevailed. This argument was illustrated the following 
year by the condemnation in a state court of Abijah 
Adams, co-editor of the Boston Independent Chronicle, 
for seditious libel; a case which showed that prosecution 
under the common law of states could be even more 
severe than under the Sedition Act, since the truth of the 
alleged libel could not be offered as a defense. 

Otis's speech of July 10 formed the basis of every con- 
temporary justification of the Sedition Act, and his argu- 
ments have stood the test of time, 17 while those of the 
Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, the most powerful 
on the other side, have not survived. Like every other 
argument of the state rights school, the "Resolutions of 
'98" deny to the federal government the necessary means 
of perpetuating its existence, when threatened by sedi- 
tion or rebellion. In like manner, Otis's interpretation of 

18 This is the only weak part of Otis's argument. Gallatin pointed out, in 
reply, that the statutes mentioned were "necessary and proper" means of 
carrying out enumerated powers of Congress, — to establish courts, to establish 
executive departments, — whereas no enumerated power existed which a 
sedition law could carry into effect. 

17 His main argument is repeated by the Supreme Court in the Legal Tender 
Cases (1871): "That would appear, then, to be a most unreasonable construc- 
tion of the Constitution which denies to the government created by it, the 
right to employ freely every means, not prohibited, necessary for the preserva- 
tion, and for the fulfillment of its acknowledged duties It certainly was 

intended to confer upon the government the power of self-preservation." 
12 Wall, 528. 



A SYSTEM OF TERROR 121 

the First Amendment to the Constitution has prevailed : 
— Blackstone's definition of freedom of the press "has 
been accepted as expressing the views of those who 
adopted this amendment"; 18 and many of the great 
commentators on American constitutional law have 
substantially agreed with Otis's final conclusion, that 
the federal government has the power to punish seditious 
libel. 19 

Twenty years later, when Otis was in the United 
States Senate, the question came up of indemnifying one 
of the victims of the Sedition Act. Otis, who was then the 
only member in either House of Congress that had voted 
for it in 1798, took up the gauntlet of Senator Barbour of 
Virginia in defense of his old principles. "With respect 
to the constitutional question," he said, "I am content 
to declare that my mind has always reposed upon a single 
consideration, detached from all others, as sufficient to 
uphold the Act. All governments must possess an in- 
herent right to punish all acts, which being morally 
wrong, tend directly to endanger their existence or safety. 
This power would be implied in the Constitution, even 
though no express words had conveyed the authority to 
make all laws 'necessary and proper,' to give effect to the 

18 T. M. Cooley, Constitutional Law (3d ed.), 300. H. W. Bikle, in Amer. Law 
Register, l, 15-16, and Cooley, op. cit., 300 et seq., point out that Blackstone's 
definition has been applied in several cases, adopted by Chancellor Kent 
(Commentaries, n, 17), and cited in the recent American and English Ency- 
clopedia of Law, N. S., vi, 1002. Cooley believes Blackstone's definition to be 
insufficient, and that the amendment was meant to preserve freedom of public 
discussion, as well as to exempt the press from censorship in advance of publi- 
cation. 

19 For example, Bikle, op. cit., and others cited in his note 67; Cooley, op. 
cit., 305; W. W. Willoughby, Constitutional Law (1910), 845. Another objection 
to constitutionality of the Sedition Act, raised at the time by Gallatin, and 
brought up since by historians, is based on the principle that federal courts 
have no jurisdiction over common law offenses. The objection is not well 
taken, for when the courts were given jurisdiction over seditious libel by Act 
of Congress, it became a statutory, and not a common law offense. 



122 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

instrument. Without such a right, no government is 
competent to the great duty of self protection." 20 

A few days after this speech was delivered, Otis re- 
ceived from an old political enemy a letter that must have 
given him as much satisfaction as any he ever received in 
his life. The writer was Judge Story of the Supreme 
Court, the most eminent of commentators on the Con- 
stitution. 

Salem Deer 27, 1818 
Dear Sir 

I have the pleasure to acknowledge the receipt of your 
package covering the Washington City Gazette. I have read 
your speech with great interest; & equally admire its manner & 
matter. Such arguments composed in a tone of manliness, ur- 
banity, & candour do honour to our Country. As a citizen of 
Massachusetts I feel proud that the redeeming spirit of her 
eloquence is heard with so much effect in the Senate of the Na- 
tion. 

At the time when I first turned my thoughts to political 
subjects in the ardour of very early youth, I well remember that 
the sedition law was my great aversion. With the impetuosity 
& desire of independence so common to zealous young men, I 
believed it to be unconstitutional. I have now grown wiser in 
this, & I hope in many other respects; & for many years have 
entertained no more doubt of the constitutional power of Con- 
gress to enact that law, than any other in the Statute book. My 
present opinion has been forced upon me by reflection, by legal 
analogy, & by calm deliberation. You may smile at my con- 
fession, which I hope you will not call, as Mr Randolph on an- 
other occasion did, "a precious confession." 

The truth is & it ought not to be disguised, that many opin- 
ions are taken up & supported at the moment, which at a dis- 
tance of time, when the passions of the day have subsided, no 
longer meet our approbation. He who lives a long life & never 
changes his opinions may value himself upon his consistency; 
but rarely can be complimented for his wisdom. Experience 
cures us of many of our theories; & the results of measures often 

20 Mr. Otis' 1 s Speech on the Sedition Law (see bibliography). 



A SYSTEM OF TERROR 123 

convince us against our will that we have seen them erroneously 
in the beginning. I hope I shall never have any pride but to do 
right, & fearlessly to acknowledge my errors when I perceive 
them. 

With my best wishes for your personal happiness & a sincere 
interest in your public character I beg the honor of subscribing 
myself most respectfully 

Your obedt friend & servt. 

Joseph Story. 

With all due respect to Judge Story's opinion, there is 
still one conclusive objection to the constitutionality of 
the Sedition Act, — the extent of its scope. The second 
section was broad enough to include not only libels that 
threatened the life of the state and the peaceful working 
of its functions, but also those that threatened the 
supremacy of the Federal party. "It failed to draw 
the line between such publications as vitally affected the 
security and vigor of the government, and such as did 
not." This defect appeared in the enforcement of the 
law, which was prosecuted vigorously. Under its cover 
several persons were fined and imprisoned for publica- 
tions and utterances that were little more than scurrilous 
criticisms of party policy. From a political point of view, 
moreover, the measure was suicidal. It revolted the pop- 
ular sense of personal liberty, and acted like oil on the 
flames of defamation that it was calculated to quench. 
There is reason to believe that a portion of the Federal 
party foresaw this result, since many Federalists present 
at the time the vote was taken, refused to vote for it. 21 
Otis, however, and the Federal party as a whole, were 
highly pleased with the Alien and Sedition system. 

21 The vote was 44 to 41, the smallest majority of any Federalist measure 
since the publication of the X. Y. Z. dispatches. Only two members from 
south of the Potomac voted Yea. 



124 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

"Each factious alien shrinks with dread 
And hides his hemp-devoted head; 
While Slander's foul seditious crew, 
With gnashing teeth retires from view." 22 

The legislatures of Virginia and Kentucky "saw in 
those untoward measures the racks and thumb-screws 
of a political inquisition." 23 In their famous Resolutions 
of November and December, 1798, the latent doctrine of 
state sovereignty was cast in a definite formula, in order 
to prove that Congress had no right to adopt such a 
system as the Alien and Sedition Acts. Otis undoubtedly 
shared the general opinion of his party, and regarded the 
"Resolutions of '98" as abominable heresies. The vital- 
ity of these declarations, however, was remarkable. 
Their basis, the assertions "that the Government created 
by this compact was not made the exclusive or final judge 
of the extent of the powers delegated to itself," that 
"each party has an equal right to judge for itself, as well 
of infractions as of the mode and measure of redress," 
was laid up in the treasury of state rights for any one to 
use who would. Otis, himself, was glad to draw upon it in 
the days of embargo, non-intercourse, and Madison's 
war. 

22 R. Alsop et. al. (the "Hartford Wits"), Political Greenhouse for 1798, 8. 

23 J. C. Welling, "Connecticut Federalism" (Addresses, Lectures, etc.), 296. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE REPUBLICAN COURT l 
1797-1801, jet. 32-36 

Politics was not Otis's only occupation and amuse- 
ment during his career as a member of the Fifth and 
Sixth Congresses. His social importance in Boston and 
his honorable official position gave him and Mrs. Otis the 
entree to the most aristocratic society America has ever 
seen, the nearest approach to a court that the Republic 
has ever tolerated. 

Philadelphia, at the end of the eighteenth century, had 
an undisputed leadership among American cities in 
population, commerce, and literature. In Philadelphian 
society there were then, as to-day, two distinct elements: 
the one was composed of old families of Quaker stock, 
kindly and intellectual, but somewhat rigid in social 
matters; the other, a liberal and pleasure-loving set, 
consisted, for the most part, of descendants of colonial 
government officials, and of English merchants, allied 
by marriage, in some instances, with the new "stock- 
jobbing aristocracy" that Jefferson detested. It was a 

1 The main sources for this chapter are Otis's letters to Mrs. Otis, and the 
manuscript memoirs of a Philadelphian, son of one of the persons mentioned in 
this chapter, and related to many of them. Born after the events described, he 
wrote his account of society during the Washington and Adams administrations 
for the amusement and information of his children, from first-hand testimony 
of members of that society, and from family traditions. He knew Mr. Otis 
very well, and was an intimate friend of two of his children. Since the writer 
was always unwilling that his work should be published, it seems due to him 
now to suppress his name. The manuscript was placed at my disposal through 
the kindness of his son. I have also drawn on R. W. Griswold's Republican 
Court (1855), a miscellaneous compilation of fact and gossip. 



126 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

cultivated and cosmopolitan group. The men were edu- 
cated usually in the English universities or the Temple; 
the women, after presentations at the court of George III 
or of Louis XVI, transplanted into Philadelphian society 
the manners of English aristocracy, and the fashions of 
Paris. Wealth these men and women possessed through 
foreign commerce and finance, and they knew how to use 
it to advantage. The selection of Philadelphia as the 
temporary capital of the nation, from 1790 to 1800, 
added strength and prestige to this society. The federal 
government at the time was composed largely of gentle- 
men; in the Federal party, which possessed the Execu- 
tive, the Judiciary, and a majority of the Legislature, no 
man not a gentleman by birth or education was eligible 
to office. Eliminating certain Democratic members of 
Congress, the federal government resembled a large club 
of well-bred men from all parts of the country. It repre- 
sented our national aristocracy of education and talents, 
which, as John Adams said, will continue to exist "as 
long as some men are taller and others shorter, some 
wiser and others sillier, some more virtuous and others 
more vicious, some richer and others poorer." 

The happy combination of a national government, a 
Federalist administration, and a diplomatic corps, with 
the cultivated native society of Philadelphia, and the 
constant influx of distinguished foreign visitors, gave 
Philadelphia from 1790 to 1800 all the best characteristics 
of a court. It was far more cosmopolitan than the smaller 
courts of Europe, and differed from them in that no 
distinctions of rank were known among its members. 
Even President and Mrs. Washington were merely primi 
inter pares. But no court could have been more intolerant 
of political dissent. Owing to the political bitterness of 
the times, Democratic gentlemen and their families, no 




SALLY FOSTER OTIS 
From a miniature bv Malbone. 



THE REPUBLICAN COURT 127 

matter how high their social qualifications, were rigidly 
ostracized by the best society in Philadelphia. 

.For persons of undoubted social position and political 
orthodoxy, like Mr. and Mrs. Harry Otis, this society was 
decidedly agreeable. During Washington's administra- 
tions, the young couple frequently visited the Sam- 
uel A. Otises, who had come to Philadelphia with the 
federal government. Harry Otis, ever witty and convi- 
vial, and his wife, whom Griswold describes as "remark- 
able for beauty and wit, as well as for an intellectual 
vivacity, tempered always by an indescribable grace," 
became general favorites at court. Through Mrs. Otis's 
girlhood friend, Sophia Francis, who married Otis's 
friend George Harrison, 2 they became intimate with the 
whole Willing and Bingham connection, which con- 
stituted a ruling oligarchy in Philadelphia society. 
Mrs. Harrison's uncle, Thomas Willing, head of a great 
mercantile firm and president of the United States Bank, 
was chief of the clan, which embraced the Francises, 
Hares, Powels, Byrds, Harrisons, and Binghams. 

Mrs. Otis accompanied her husband to the first and 
third sessions of the Fifth Congress, in May, 1797, and 
October, 1798; but with the cares of an ever-increasing 
family she later had to remain in Boston during the 
greater part of her husband's congressional career. Otis 
felt severely this separation from his wife and children, 
and mainly for this reason he refused to be a candidate 
for reelection in 1800. While he was away, however, he 
made the best of things among his friends who never 
permitted him to be lonely,"and to amuse his wife he 
wrote to her a chronique scandaleuse of Philadelphia 

2 George Harrison (1761-1845) was a protege of Robert Morris. He had to 
begin life over again after the great financier's bankruptcy in 1798, and finally 
became one of the most respected merchants of Philadelphia. 



128 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

society, from which we can glean many interesting de- 
tails of daily life at the Republican Court. 

Otis's letters to his wife begin at the opening of the 
dull winter session of 1797-98, when everything in poli- 
tics hung fire, awaiting news from the mission to France. 
Vexed at his forced absence from home, Otis was at first 
inclined to be scornful of Philadelphia and its inhabitants. 
In this mood was the letter of November 17, 1797: 

Hitherto I have seen or heard of nothing approaching to 
gaiety or amusement. The theatre is not yet open. The as- 
sembly not begun, and the Ladies not yet ready to scald the 
beau monde with hot tea. I begin to doubt whether the winter 
is to be what they stile a gay one — and I really feel no dispo- 
sition to take an active part in the bagatelle of the hour. In 
short, I am so tranquil in my little chamber, & so constantly 
in it, that if you could peep in & see me, with my feet nailed 
to the jamb, & my eyes fixed on my book, you might mistake 
me for one of Bowens wax figures — though taking my flannel 
night gown into view I think he has nothing quite so elegant. 

And again on November 20 : — 

Although I have yet heard but once from my dearest friend, 
I am in full expectation of a line by this morning's post. A com- 
plete week has now elapsed since my arrival here, and though 
I have long since learnt to realize that my mind can never be 
tranquil in your absence, yet I hardly expected to be so discon- 
solate an old Bachelor as I have found myself. The Senators 
are so dilatory in arriving, that no business has been yet done; 
& the city so dull that I have seen or heard of no thing that 
wears the air of pleasure or amusement; so that I have ample 
time to devote to my books; & with the exception of a quarter 
of an hour each morning, I have kept my chamber from seven 
untill three o'clock, & have returned to it again always before 
nine. Whether it be that commercial derangements, or the ef- 
fects of the yellow fever, (which may be deep though not visible) 
have spread a gloom over the city, or whether the very at- 
mosphere is impregnated with Quakerism, & Tom Paine's word 



THE REPUBLICAN COURT 129 

gives a drab colour'd cast to the houses and people, I will not 
pretend to determine, but certainly there is less appearance of 
the bustle of business, and of the splendour of fashion than I 
expected to see at this season. Nor can I but admire the readi- 
ness with which the people and especially our friend Sophia 
invent apologies for the procrastination of the public amuse- 
ments and of the private parties; and if the winter should pass 
away without either, many fertile expedients will be found to 
evade the charge of inhospitality, & if every member of Congress 
should be obliged to mumble his dinner with none but his Land- 
lady, during the session, you may assign whatever reason you 
please, but the want of a social temper & courteous manners in 
the inhabitants. It is not however to be denied with truth, 
that Quaker and German habits and manners characterise the 
body of the Citizens. Those who constitute the fashionable 
world are at best a mere oligarchy, composed of a few natives 
and as many foreigners. Having none to rival or eclipse them; 
or contend with them for the right of entertaining strangers, 
they pursue their own course without interruption. They will 
tell you that they can give you nothing to eat or drink in sum- 
mer; because they leave town & reside in the country, & in win- 
ter you must wait for their civilities untill the time arrives for 
commencing the Parties, which is sometimes a month or six 
weeks later than at others, as Mrs. A happens to have finished 
her new drawing room, or Mrs B. to have gotten up from her 
last accouchment. My experience is yet to inform me wherein 
consists the pleasure, elegance & taste of these Parties. As the 
ladies on these occasions vie with each other in dress, I presume 
the eye at least must be gratified, but I fancy they are often 
very formal, unenlivened by general conversation and that the 
food for the mind contains as little nourishment as the cold tea 
which is applied to the dilution of the grosser part of the sys- 
tem. But it is not just in me to complain. My casual intimacy 
with a few families places me on a footing of domestic intercourse 
which is sufficiently agreeable, and having general invitations to 
two or three houses, I can partake of the pleasures of society in 
a way most conformable to my taste. I do not wish to enlarge 
my acquaintance, as I could not cultivate one more extensive 
with convenience to myself — and while I remain in public life, 
my main attention, from duty and choice must be directed to 



130 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

business. I have dined once with Cutting at Mrs Grattan's, 
once at Yznardis, 3 in great stile; & yesterday in the country 
with Jonathan Williams. 4 I am engaged for next Christmas with 
Mrs Powell, but with nobody for the Christmas after next. 
Rutledge has brought his wife and three Children, they are at 
lodgings; he has dined once with an old friend from Carolina, 
but has not another invitation yet. Mrs Grattan has a project 
of hiring the Government House, for the purpose of a Subscrip- 
tion Assembly. Mrs. Adams's first drawing room will be on 
friday; and afterwards once a fortnight. Mrs Liston 5 is not 
yet in town; & Mrs. La Frery sent her husband 6 to enquire 
about and after you, & indeed one would think from the 
numerous enquiries that you would be in great demand if 
here. 

As the New Year approached these complaints of 
dulness cease in Otis's letters, for he was asked to more 
parties than he cared to accept. "The Binghams and 
Willings are civil and attentive. I dine with old Square 
Toes 7 ontuesday — no common favor this" he writes, — 
the disrespectful epithet referring to old Thomas Willing. 

Another mid-season letter: 

My dear Sally will conclude that I am beginning to get into 
a habit of dissipation or some other bad way by my short 
letters. It is true — I was last night at Henry Hills with a great 
concourse of both sexes, who danced and appeared to be happy. 
I neither danced nor supped, but retired at an early hour. In 

3 Joseph M. Yznardi, a Spanish gentleman, son of the United States consul 
at Cadiz, was a resident of Havana, and frequent visitor to Philadelphia. Otia 
writes, December 5, 1793, "On friday, Yznardi gave a splendid dinner, at 
which I was a guest. It is said he has a very lucrative contract, for supplying 
flour to Havannah, and he certainly discovers every disposition to spend at 
least a part of the profits among his friends." 

4 Jonathan Williams (1750-1815) was a nephew of Benjamin Franklin, and 
like his uncle distinguished in various activities, diplomatic, military, judicial, 
political, literary, and scientific. 

5 The wife of the British minister. 

6 The Chevalier Cipriano de Freire, the Portuguese minister. 

7 This was a contemporary nickname for old gentlemen who stuck to the 
old-fashioned square-toed boots, after pointed boots had become the fashion. 



THE REPUBLICAN COURT 131 

going to these places I experience but little positive enjoyment, 
but think it my duty to cultivate the acquaintance of fashion- 
able and agreeable people who may contribute to your happi- 
ness this spring and next winter. Harry who is a great amateur 
of the fine arts & fine women, has a famous Statue of the Venus 
of Medicis, but it being intimated to him that the attitude & 
native beauties of the fair Goddess would beam too full upon 
the eye he had her dressed in a green Silk Lacedemonian Dress 
— much like Madame Tallien's — & which giving room to 
conclude that more was concealed than was really true, only 
made matters worse. This Evg there is a teaparty at Phillip's. 
Monday a dance at Liston's, Wednesday a dinner at do., thurs- 
day a party at Mrs. Mifflins to all of which I am invited. To 
some of which I may go. But I can with good conscience sing, 
"there's little pleasure to be had when my dear Girl's away." 
. . . The weather grows pleasant, the roads good, and I am im- 
patient to remove all obstacles to your coming to the arms of 

Yr affect 

H. G. Otis 

Winter seasons in Philadelphia were gay and brilliant. 
Besides the subscription assemblies and private enter- 
tainments, each foreign minister gave a dinner and a ball 
once a fortnight, and the President and married members 
of the Cabinet gave private and official dinners and re- 
ceptions. Color and life were everywhere. The "levelling 
process of France" had not yet brought the dress of 
gentlemen to democratic black, and the fair women of the 
Republican Court dressed like the beautiful subjects of 
Gainsborough and Sir Joshua. The Due de la Roche- 
foucauld Liancourt, who visited Philadelphia at this 
period, writes: "Le luxe est, comme je Fai dit, tres-grand 
a Philadelphia pour la table dans les jours de ceremonie, 
pour les voitures et pour la parure des dames. J'ai vu 
des bals, au jour de naissance du President, ou les 
ornemens de la salle, l'elegance et la variete des parures 
rappelaient 1'Europe; et dans cette comparaison, il faut 



132 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

convenir que la beaute des dames Americaines aurait 
l'avantage." 8 

The President and his Lady were the official heads of 
Philadelphia society. General and Mrs. Washington, 
had been the actual heads also, but President and Mrs. 
Adams, although experienced in the society of foreign 
courts, allowed their position to go by default, and were 
not greatly liked in the society of the Capital. Otis's 
father, and his aunt Mercy Warren, were close personal 
friends of the Adamses, who in consequence frequently 
asked the young Congressman to dine. On one occasion, 
after a family dinner at the President's, Otis writes his 
wife, "the retirement of Mrs A. &c gave me the oppor- 
tunity for a tete a tete with him, which I improved in 
soliciting for our Friend " — for an appointment, it ap- 
pears. "I was graciously received but fear the applica- 
tions are so numerous I shall not prevail." Later: "I was 
last Evg at the Drawing Room. It was the second eve- 
ning, but only 16 Ladies were present, perhaps the dull- 
ness of the weather was the cause." And on another 
occasion: "In the morning ... I went to visit the Presi- 
dent. It was nominally grand Levee day, but really 
attended to by a very few persons except the official and 
diplomatic characters. The weather was bad. Among 
other Ladies was Madame de Freira who always talks a 
great deal about you, & who threatens very hard to 
notice you, when you come next winter." 

8 La Rochefoucauld Liancourt, Voyage dans les Etals-TJnis, vr, S30. Otis 
sends his wife a few hints on ladies' fashions in December, 1799: "Wigs are 
out here, but the hair is dressed like a wig, with the hair of the back part of the 
head brought forward forming a sort of bandeau ornamented with little 
combs, some of which I will send you if you have none in Boston. Black Velvet 
great coats made like an open gown are also the rage. Would not my Velvet 
suit make you one? If not buy a new one. In short let me know all you want, 
& indulge me in my only real pleasure that of contributing to your wishes and 
comfort." 



THE REPUBLICAN COURT 133 

President Adams did not add to his popularity in 
Philadelphia by refusing to attend the "Birth-night 
Ball" on February 22, 1798. John Adams always re- 
sented playing second fiddle to Washington, whom he 
considered much his inferior in ability, and he took as a 
personal insult the public celebration of Washington's 
birthday instead of his own. The incident gave huge 
delight to Jefferson and his followers, who, with their 
usual tendency to magnify trifles, regarded birth-night 
balls as indications of monarchical designs on the part of 
the Federalists. "The court is in a prodigious uproar 
over the event." — "The late birth-night certainly has 
sewn tares among the exclusive federalists," wrote Galla- 
tin and Jefferson. Otis sympathized with the President. 
He writes on February 24: 

The Birth night ball of last evening was I am told respect- 
ably attended, tho by no means equal in splendour & numbers 
to the last. . . . The President did not attend, & his refusal has 
given considerable offence, even to some of the federal party. 
To be sure his apology was rather formal, but I think he acted 
rightly upon principle. As President, he ought to know of no 
distinction among 'private citizens, whatever may be their merit 
or virtue; & having never received from the Philadelphians, the 
slightest mark of attention, he was in my mind quite excusable 
for declining to be the pageant, to do honor to another. Many 
families who usually increase the flutter of the beau monde were 
absent. The Morrisites of course. The Binghams who have 
lately lost a relation, & the Chews on account of a Mrs. Pem- 
berton who died last Sunday; I am told too that the whole house 
was very damp and believe I have not lost much. 

Mrs. William Bingham was the leader of Philadelphia 
society during Otis's congressional career. Born Anne 
Willing, the eldest of the three beautiful daughters of 
Thomas Willing, she married in 1780, at the age of six- 
teen, William Bingham, a successful merchant of humble 



134 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

extraction, who had amassed a large fortune through 
privateering and speculating in government warrants. 
He was elected to the United States Senate in 1795. The 
Binghams' "Mansion House," as it was always called, 
was the centre of Philadelphia social life. It occupied 
with its gardens and stables almost three acres of land, 
fronting on Third Street at Spruce, and running west to 
Fourth Street. In style it was a copy of Manchester 
House in London, but more splendid than the original, 
and designed primarily for entertaining. On the ground 
floor were a banqueting-room and library; on the first 
story the various drawing-rooms, to which one ascended 
by a broad marble staircase; the entire mansion was 
furnished in the best taste of that admirable period of 
domestic art. Here were entertained presidents and cab- 
inet ministers, senators and representatives of the Federal 
party, and the distinguished emigres, like the Orleans 
princes, La Rochefoucauld Liancourt, and the sly Talley- 
rand, who took a temporary refuge in America. Young 
Louis-Philippe, the future King of the French, courted 
Mrs. Bingham's sister, but old Mr. Willing refused his 
consent to the match when that of the dowager Duchesse 
d'Orleans could not be obtained. At the Bingham man- 
sion were held the "nocturnal caucuses" of the senatorial 
ring which in 1799 fruitlessly attempted to impose the 
will of Alexander Hamilton on John Adams. 

Mrs. Bingham, young and fascinating, beautiful and 
wealthy, was the undisputed queen of the Republican 
Court. Having passed several years with Mr. Bingham 
in England, where she was greatly feted and admired, 
she imported some of the less amiable traits of English 
society. Like the Duchess of Devonshire and other great 
ladies of the Court of St. James, she besprinkled her 
conversation with oaths, and spiced it with facetious 



THE REPUBLICAN COURT 135 

anecdotes. In serious contrast to the false prudery that 
draped the Venus de Medicis, the taste of that time 
admitted subjects of conversation that to-day seem 
vulgar, to say the least. The following extracts are fair 
examples of such intimate conversations in the Bingham 
set as Otis relates: 

Yesterday I dined at Clymers, with the Bingham and Willing 
Party. Sophia not there. It was the first day of the Bingham's 
return from the country. . . . Dolly 9 then began to rally 
Clymer on the subject of his Stomacher, . . . and mentioned 
that one of the British Princes (I think the Duke of York) who 
had lately married the Princess Wirtemburg has so protuberant 
a corporation that he was compelled to order a semicircular 
piece cut out of his dining table, to give him access to his plate. 
Mrs. Bingham expressed a hint of sympathy for the Dutchess, 
and Clymer told his sister Francis that he should soon be able 
to retort this excellent jest upon her. All this, and much face- 
tious matter of the same kind was received with bursts of ap- 
plause that would have done credit to the national convention 
especially by Miss Abby & Miss Ann, who did not disguise 
their delight nor their bosoms. 

And in another letter, 

This week, one day I dined at Harrison's, with a family party 
and Saml Smith & John Brown 10 as Aid de Camps. Old John 
after rallying Sophia in no very acceptable strain, upon her un- 
fruitfulness, by a natural but not very flattering transition 
introduced Mrs. Champlin and her want of prolifick qualities 
as a seasoning for the Canvas Backs. This topic which had a 
commencement embarrassing to me, whose feelings were ex- 
cited for our good friends, terminated in a manner most agree- 
able. Did you never think says Mr. Brown that Mrs Champlin 
& Mrs. Otis very much resemble each other? Sophia shook 

9 Dolly Francis, Mrs. Bingham's sister. 

10 Samuel Smith (1752-1839), Representative from Baltimore, later Senator. 
He is the only Democrat mentioned in Otis's letters as being present at a 
Federalist dining-table. John Brown (1736-1803), of Providence, a prominent 
merchant, and member of Congress. 



136 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

her head with dissenting movement. Mr Otis observed that he 
had not perceived the likeness, & that after the encomiums 
bestowed on Mrs C. he should hardly venture to make so flat- 
tering a comparison, even if he thought it just. Oh the D 1 

exclaimed S. Smith, there is no comparison at all. Mrs O with 
all the advantages of the other lady, shows in an instant that 
she has all her Days been used to Company, her manners are 
elegant; but this woman with a pretty face, has the air of a 
country girl. 

Mrs. Bingham's imported manners and mannerisms 
were after all superficial. She was intensely loved by her 
husband, who died, it is said, of a broken heart not long 
after her untimely death in 1801. Although for ten years 
the focus of metropolitan scandal, no whisper against her 
good name has come down the channels of historical 
gossip. Her eldest daughter Anne married Alexander 
Baring, of the celebrated London banking house. As the 
first Lord Ashburton, his frank and upright negotiation 
with Daniel Webster over the Maine boundary prevented 
a war, and furnished a pattern on which all diplomatic 
negotiations should be modelled. Lady Ashburton had 
the satisfaction of founding a noble house, but a friend of 
Mr. Otis, who visited the Ashburtons in England, found 
her far from happy. "She met with many mortifica- 
tions," he wrote in his memoirs, "and from nobody so 
great as from her son's wife, Lady Harriet, and her proud 
family, that of Earl Sandwich. I am told that at her son's 
marriage she was not invited to the dejeuner. Certainly 
Lady Harriet was the most perfect example of insolent 
ill breeding I ever saw, treated the poor old lady in her 
own house, at the Grange, with great coolness if not 
impertinence." 

Mrs. Bingham's second daughter, Maria, furnished 
scandal for the Republican Court from an early age. An 
old beau, who visited the Binghams with Otis in 1798, 



THE REPUBLICAN COURT 137 

predicted that Maria, then aged fourteen, would not 
"keep" long. About a year later she fulfilled the proph- 
ecy, by making a clandestine marriage with the Comte 
de Tilly, a handsome and profligate Frenchman. To 
quote again from the memoirs of Otis's nameless friend: 

It was a shocking and scandalous affair, and created at the 
time prodigious sensation in our highest circles. De Tilly was 
ready, however, to be bought off. He was bribed to furnish evi- 
dence against himself, and the divorce was obtained by influence 
with the Legislature of Pennsylvania, whether by corruption 
I am not able to say, but in those days Legislatures were sup- 
posed to be unassailable in that way. 

Otis commented on the situation in a letter to his wife 
on January 18, 1800: 

First then, I just learn that a bill for divorcing Maria Bing- 
ham has passed both houses at Lancaster, where Mr Bingham 
now is. She was however every day walking with her mother 
while this business was pending and in a dress which you will 
hardly believe it possible for a lady to wear at least at this sea- 
son. A muslin robe and her chemise, and no other article of 
cloathing upon her body. I have been regaled with the sight of 
her whole legs for five minutes together, and do not know "to 
what height" the fashion will be carried. The particulars of 

her dress I have from old Mrs. F who assures me that her 

chemise is fringed to look like a petticoat. However she and the 
whole family are evidently dejected. 

With her divorce scarcely procured, however, Maria, 
now aged sixteen, had another lover, a young man named 
Erving, whom Otis thought "conceited, democratical and 
niggardly." Here is his opinion on this subject expressed 
more fully : 

Thursday evening Miss Peters gave a ball, to which by Er- 
ving's special request I procured his admission. Doubtless his 
principal view was to meet Maria, to whom his attentions were 
perfectly ridiculous. He scarcely spake to any other Lady, first 



1S8 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

he danced with her, then sat by her, then followed her up and 
down when she danced with other persons like a shadow, and in 
short was so absolutely inattentive to the ladies of the family 
that I was mortified. It was hinted to me that he has no chance 
of success, & that Mam'selle is not smitten. 

Erving shortly afterwards received his conge, and the 
interesting history of Maria Bingham is continued by our 
anonymous friend : 

Maria B . afterward married Henry Baring, 1 x was divorced from 
him on account of an amour with Captain Webster, the son of 
Sir Godfrey Webster and the lady, afterwards Lady Holland, 
who was herself an American of the great Vassall family and 
was divorced from Sir Godfrey after the birth of her first son by 
Lord Holland, who could not take his father's title. Mr. Vas- 
sall's fortune was enormous and the husband of his daughter 
was compelled to take the name of Vassall. After Maria Bing- 
ham's second divorce, she married a Marquis de Blaizel, a 
Frenchman in the Austrian army and a Chamberlain of the 
Emperor. I knew her in Paris, then an old woman but quite 
an amusing one. She had seen the world in many phases and had 
plenty of anecdotes which she told pleasantly. She was a very 
amiable, kind-hearted woman and her faults and frailties were 
attributable to neglect, in some measure, and the bad company 
into which she was thrown. Her mother was devoted to fashion 
and incessantly devoted to company, left her daughter to the 
instruction of a French governess, who had been an Actress and 
was probably bought by de Tilly. Henry Baring who had no 
sense of honor or delicacy, threw her into the most dissipated 
company, was glaringly unfaithful himself, and it is said, laid 
a plan for her divorce when he had fallen in love with a young 
lady who became his second wife. Whether Captain Webster 
knowingly lent himself to his friend's scheme, I know not. The 
poor lady was unhappy with her third husband who was a gam- 
bler and always in want of money which she could not supply 
in sufficient sums to satisfy him, for Henry Baring had managed 
to retain the greater part of her fortune. She lived in rather an 
equivocal position in Paris. She was received at the Austrian 

11 Brother of Alexander Baring who married her sister. 



THE REPUBLICAN COURT 139 

Ambassador's but not at the English Embassy. The public trial 
in England was a stigma which the most notorious profligacy, 
not certified in Court, did not affix. I think Louis Phillippe re- 
fused her the entree of the Palais Royal, though this was prob- 
ably the act of his virtuous wife, otherwise he would not per- 
haps, have shunned the daughter of the hospitable house where 
the exiled French princes were so honorably entertained. 

The brilliant career of the family in Philadelphia was brief; 
from Mr. Bingham's return from Europe [in 1789] with his 
beautiful young wife to her death in [1801]. She took a severe 
cold in a sleighing party where she exposed herself too soon after 
the birth of her son, was attacked by lung fever, went almost in 
a dying state to the Bermudas which she did not live to reach. 
Her broken-hearted husband went to England where he died 
in 1804. 

Early in 1798, Philadelphia received a shock by the 
bankruptcy of the great financier of the Revolution, Rob- 
ert Morris, whose entertainments up to that time had 
vied with those of the Binghams in splendor. Extensive 
speculations during a number of years brought the first 
crash, concerning which Otis wrote in February: 

Poor Mr. Morris was yesterday compelled to surrender him- 
self to his bail, and was bro't to his house in town, with a design 
of going to prison. He was either committed yesterday, or will 
be today, the Sheriff having kept him in custody. I am told that 
his family exhibited a dreadful scene of distress, that Mrs M 
was almost as frantic, and flew upon the Person who was his 
bail and who bro't him to town and would have committed 
violence but was prevented. What an example of the folly and 
vanity of human grandeur. But a few years since he was in 
wealth and honor, the most considerable man in the United 
States, & she ruled the world of fashion with unrivalled sway. 
He will now probably moulder away a few remaining wretched 
years in prison, and her joys & comforts have probably forever 
vanished. 12 

12 Morris was forced to remain in the Prune Street debtors' prison over 
three years, and came near dying there. 



140 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

The great man's fall carried many others with him, 
including the Otises' dear friends, the Harrisons, who 
were tided over the crisis by the appointment of Mr. 
Harrison to the office of navy agent for the government. 
Bankruptcies were not uncommon in the fashionable 
world of Philadelphia, and Otis writes apropos of another 
sensational affair of that sort in 1800 : 

In short everything confirms my opinion that the capital of 
this country by no means justifies the luxury and style of life 
affected by so many. Overtrading, & unbounded credit are the 
mischiefs; bankruptcies & ruin will be the cure, & though I have 
never thought or called myself rich, I would not exchange my 
property for that of many who talk of thousands & tens of thou- 
sands, as if dollars were needles and pins. Our friends Willing 
and Francis stand firm; yet am I glad that the notes I hold of 
theirs fall due from the 9 to the 19 april. They owe me 12500 
Dollars, a very serious sum, and such as I will never again 
suffer to be dependant on any personal security whatever. 

The most stirring period of Philadelphia's social 
supremacy immediately followed the X. Y. Z. disclosures 
of April, 1798. Mr. McMaster gives a vivid description of 
that time in his history — the patriotic demonstrations 
at the theatre when the " President's March" was sung 
to Joseph Hopkinson's new words, the patriotic dinners 
and toasts, addresses to the President, serenades, and 
struggles between black cockade and tricolor. Otis, un- 
fortunately for us, was too full of anxiety over a new 
addition to his family to refer to these scenes in his 
letters to his wife, which are interrupted early in May, 
when she joined him at Philadelphia. 

The death of Washington, on December 14, 1799, 
is the subject of Otis's next letter of this series: 

My dearest friend, 

The sensation of regret excited by the death of Genl. Wash- 
ington has suspended all public business, and almost excluded 



THE REPUBLICAN COURT 141 

private concerns. Congress will be sincerely engaged for some 
days in paying honor to his memory. In addition to the mea- 
sures which you will see detailed in the enclosed papers, the 
Senate have also agreed to wear mourning during the Session, 
and the walls of their chamber will be entirely hung with black. 
A joint committee of both houses have also agreed that a fu- 
neral eulogium shall be pronounced, and the orator though not 
named, will probably be Genl H. Lee of Virginia. It is contem- 
plated to turn out all the military and to make a grand pro- 
cession, and it was proposed in the Committee that the Uni- 
versities of America should send in rotation every four years, 
an orator to commemorate the event by an oration at the seat 
of government. This last project however has not yet been 
adopted; but the affection and regret of the people will seek for 
any possible mode of demonstrating their sense of this truly 
great and irreparable loss. 

December 26th, from the House of Representatives: 

► Before my eyes and in front of the speakers chair lies a 
coffin covered with a black pall, bearing a military hat & sword. 
The chair itself & tables shrouded with black. In the back- 
ground is Washington's portrait. The Members are all pro- 
vided with black crape for their arms and white scarfs, and in 
about one hour we shall march attended by the military in 
grand procession to the German Lutheran Church where fu- 
neral obsequies will be performed and an oration delivered by 
Genl Lee. The day is fine and the streets already so crowded 
with people that I found it no easy matter to get hither. 
The concourse will be immense. 

At the end of that week comes a long letter, with some 
interesting comments on Alexander Hamilton and other 
notables. 

I proceed to give my dearest Sally a journal of the last week 
of my life. 

Sunday the 22d. Went to meeting in the morning & heard 
a young prig of a preacher, who spliced on the end of his dis- 
course a laboured panegyric on Genl Washington which would 
have been equally suitable to any other sermon. Din'd with Mr. 



142 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

Francis, old Brown eloquent in favor of the slave trade. Passed 
an hour in the evening at Breck's 13 A good house on a Sunday 
evening to see strange faces. The parties are truly select, being 
congregated from all quarters of Europe and America. Monday 
dined with Harrison & Sophia only, went home early and passed 
the evening with some members of Congress who called in. 

Tuesday Dined at Breck's, with Mrs Church, 14 Miss Schuy- 
ler, Genl. Hamilton, Champlin 15 &c &c. Mrs. C. the mirror of 
affectation, but as she affects to be extremely affable and free 
from ceremony, this foible is rather amusing than offensive. 
Miss Schuyler a young wild flirt from Albany, full of glee & 
apparently desirous of matrimony. After Dinner Mrs. C. 

dropped her shoe bow, Miss S picked it up and put it in 

Hamiltons buttonhole saying "there brother I have made you 
a Knight." "But of what order" (says Madam C) "he can't 
be a Knight of the garter in this country." "True sister" re- 
plied Miss S "but he would be if you would let him!" — 

Mrs Church took me in her coach to make some visits. Nobody 
at home but the once celebrated Mrs. Craig, whom I was glad 
of an oppy of seeing & conversing with for a few moments. 
Went to see supper at young A McCalls; the party made for the 
new married couple, Erskine and Miss Cadwallader; returned 
home in Bond's coach and narrowly escaped being stretched at 
full length with Miss Bond, by the coachman who was drunk 
& tried to overset the carriage. Happily this truly amiable and 
well bred virgin escaped the disaster. 

Wednesday Christmas day. — Dined at Aunt Powell's, 16 
with the Hares, Francis's & Harrisons. The Dowager is really 
afflicted at the death of her old friend the General, but she thinks 
it necessary to appear more so than she is in fact, and that she 
is called upon in decency to shed tears whenever his name is 
mentioned. She made out very well at first, but Mr. Hare with 
a maladroit perseverence would talk of nothing else, so that 

13 Either "Greenbrier," two miles out of Philadelphia, the estate of Samuel 
Breck (1771-1862, author of some delightful Recollections), or the town house 
of his father of the same name, formerly a merchant of Boston. 

14 Nee Schuyler, sister of Mrs. Alexander Hamilton. 

16 Christopher G. Champlin (1766-lS40),of an old Rhode Island family, a 
member of Congress from that state. 

16 Mrs. Samuel Powel, nee Willing, aunt of Mrs. Bingham, of Mrs. George 
Harrison, and of Charles Willing Hare. 



THE REPUBLICAN COURT 143 

before the cloth was removed, the old Lady's stock of briny 
element being fairly exhausted, she could only look piteous and 
at length begged a truce of all conversation on the subject, 
which being granted she munched her pies with an air of conso- 
lation that was truly edifying. I took tea at Bonds, where as 
well as at Mr Ross' I was invited to keep christmas. — Thurs- 
day attended the procession dined at the Presidents, sat near 
Mrs. Wilson, who astonished me by being very sociable. Even- 
ing at Read's with the Church party, and passed an hour very 
agreeably. Friday dined at the British Minister's — Mrs 
Champlin the only Lady. Last week Mrs Church dined at Lis- 
tens & Binghams from the same house, yet the Rhode island 
beauty was not invited. You may be assured you experienced 
more attention here, than any other lady has met with since Con- 
gress sat in this city. Kit took occasion to tell me that Hamil- 
ton (who cast some liquorish looks at his cara sposa, the day we 
were at Breck's) appears to him very trifling in his conversa- 
tion with ladies and that his wife said she did not like him at all. 
He was evidently satisfied with this intimation. Went with Mrs 
Liston to the drawing room in the evening and led her in. Both 
rooms were crowded and I missed none of my acquaintance 
but Mrs Bingham, who burst the gown she had prepared for 
the occasion Saturday. I dine with my father, drink tea with 
Betsy Francis, and have not a single engagement on hand untill 
— tomorrow. I might here add in a note that I have been 
every morning before 8 to Schuylkill bridge, and every evening 
in bed at ten. I might also indulge in a comparison of these 
scenes, or rather of these vicissitudes of eating and drinking, 
with the pleasures which I enjoy in your society . . . but I 
should grow serious, and my object being to amuse you in some 
small degree I forbear, — and will continue to kill time. . . . 

About the middle of March, 1800, Otis paired off with 
an opposition member, and left for Boston. Philadelphia 
remained the national capital only a few months longer. 
During the summer and autumn of 1800 the federal 
government removed to Washington, where the second 
and last session of the Sixth Congress opened in Novem- 
ber. Washington City, as Mr. and Mrs. Otis saw it on 



144 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

their approach, was the sharpest possible contrast to 
civilized Philadelphia. On a hill, in the centre of the 
potential city, stood the north wing of the Capitol, the 
only part completed; a mile and a half to the west was 
the simple and dignified Executive Mansion. All else was 
desolation: tree stumps, brick kilns, workmen's huts, a 
few mean frame dwellings, a wilderness of mud, were all 
that met the eye within the borders of the federal city. 
Beyond were the forest and the broad sweep of the 
Potomac. No mansion houses, no shops, no commerce, 
no people; luxuries unobtainable at any price; even 
necessities, such as food and fuel, hard to procure: such 
is the unattractive picture of Washington in 1801, left by 
contemporaries, who all agreed, however, in admiring 
the beauty of the site, the noble Potomac, and the wooded 
background. Comfortable little Georgetown, two miles 
west of the White House, proved the salvation of trans- 
planted officialdom; without the lodgings it offered, 
most of the members of the Sixth Congress must have 
camped out this first winter, or slept in the Capitol. At 
Georgetown there were a few good taverns, and a small 
group of well-bred and hospitable people, who did their 
best to entertain their visitors. 

Otis, looking forward to the end of his congressional 
career and his long period of absence from his family, was 
cheerful and optimistic on his arrival. He wrote his 
father-in-law, William Foster, on November 25, 1800: 

We arrived here yesterday without any interruption except 
one days detention at the Susquehannah river, where we con- 
soled ourselves with canvas backs for the detention. Sally ap- 
pears to me in better health than she has enjoyed for a twelve- 
month; we are better lodged than we expected and much better 
than the majority of our neighbours. The place too is more 
pleasant than I had anticipated, tho' there has been a flight of 
snow that would do credit to a colder clime and higher latitude. 



THE REPUBLICAN COURT 145 

In January, 1801, the Otises made an interesting visit 
to Mount Vernon, which is described in a letter from Mrs. 
Otis to her sister, Mrs. Charles Ward Apthorp : 

Washington Jany 13 1801 Monday. 

I received my dear Marys letter on friday Evening and not- 
withstanding her long lectures (as she calls them) I must ac- 
knowledge myself much gratified by the whole. On Saturday 
morning we made up our party for Mount Vernon, Mr Mason, 
Bayard, Francis Mr O. Betsey 17 & myself in two coachees. The 
roads are bad beyond the utmost stretch of a new england imagi- 
nation, we got safe to Alexandria which is eight miles from this 
place on the opposite bank of the potomack no fine cultivated 
growns to enliven the scene & not one decent house in this im- 
mense space but an unenclosed barren heath it appears to me 
and what the Virginians call Oldfield — here we were overtaken 
by Soderstrom, Thornton, Morton (Brother to Mrs Quincy) 
& Govr Howard 18 who were embarked in the same expedition, 
we knew Mrs Washington to have ten spare beds — but as that 
was not sufficient for the whole party, we concluded to remain 
in Alexandria on Saturday, rise early on the next morning and 
proceed, the last named Gentn went on & we pased a very 
pleasant day, walked quite over this little City, which is the 
perfect Miniature of Philadelphia, in the afternoon Mr & Mrs 
Callender join'd us, they are on a visit not being able to exist in 
Georgetown, the Evening closed as usual with Cards (the only 
amusement here known among the men) — Sunday commenced 
the arduous task, nine in the morning departed, the first mile 
out of the city lost our way and in this error came near stalling 
three times besides the loss of one hour, returned thro the same 
boggs and set off anew. Mount Vernon is ten miles distant 
from Alex. The estate is immensely large and inclosed by a high 
Virginia fence. At the entrance is a gate, after passing which is 

17 The persons mentioned are Otis's friend Jonathan Mason, then Senator 
from Massachusetts, James A. Bayard, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Willing Francis 
of Philadelphia, and Otis himself. 

18 Richard Soderstrom, consul-general of Sweden; Edward Thornton, British 
charge d' affaires; Jacob Morton or his brother Washington, both of whom 
were well-known New York Federalists; and John Eager Howard, formerly 
Governor of Maryland, and at this time United States Senator. 



146 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

a thick wood 4 Miles in length : here we were by intricate wind- 
ings twice led astray, you will imagine by this time we were 
almost discouraged — a few straggling miserable negroes the 
only moving objects, now & then a Mule the one & the other 
alike incapable of giving information in this dilemma. Bayard 
who is patience personified exclaimed "by heaven! this is too 
bad." a mute dispair seemed to seize us — when a lad more 
decent than those before seen came in view, we enquired, he said, 
"you come wrong but you go right" — here we paused; some 
ingenuity was required to solve this enigma, finding our capacity 
unequal, a second appeal was more successful, we now learned 
that we were going to the Mill, but from the Mill was a road to 
the House : true a very bad one. this revived our drooping spirits 
— the safer way however was to secure this guide, which we 
accordingly did — and at half past two surmounted all perils by 
land & by water and had the satisfaction to see on a beautiful 
emminence the Mansion of the great Washington and here 
description fails me. I can only tell you tis all that we, in our 
most romantic moments have imagined of grandeur taste and 
beauty. I fancy the soil is not very good but all that taste and 
affluence could affect is here attain'd. The House is antique 
like the inhabitant : capacious and substantial affording every 
comfort & luxury, the wings are more modern, they were added 
some years since by the General; in one is a large Hall hung with 
the most elegant painting from all parts of europe, (I presume 
presents) — himself & favorite horse not the least interesting, 
in the other wing is his own particular apartments his chamber 
where he died, his study dressing room &c which have nothing 
to distinguish them from the chambers of any other house : they 
reminded me of little Cambridge. Mrs Washington tells me she 
has not had resolution to visit these apartments since the death 
of the General, she received us with the most gracious cordial- 
lity, in her deportment is that mild benevolence that serene 
resignation which Characterises the saint — and she speaks of 
death as a pleasant Journey which is in contemplation, at the 
same time Chearful anxious to perform the most minute 
civility and unerring in every duty, the slaves are for the most 
part liberated in this instance, she is not so much at her ease 
(as the training of a young crop, we all know, is not a small 
taske) some few quite old domesticks perferd remaining, these 



THE REPUBLICAN COURT 147 

are almost useless, the Stables are crowded with horses asses 
and mules, favorites and by the Genls order exempted from 
labor, the morng of Monday was delightful cold for this climate. 
I arose with the sun determined to regale myself in these en- 
chanting walks. Mrs Lewis (formaly the beautiful Ellen Custis) 
& Bet were already prepared, the house lot & gardens included 
cover ten acres the wall is of brick which incloses it but sunk 
so that in appearance tis an Open lawn, the walks are irregular 
& serpentine cover'd by trees of various kinds but what most 
pleased me was a labyrinth of evergreens where the sun cannot 
even now penetrate. This must be a little Paradies in summer. 
I forgot it was not so even now, seeing the spinach & young 
Cabages growing in the open air — the Kitchen gardens are 
also beautifully cultivated, on the front of the House is a 
gradual declivity to the Potowmac & here the scene is indis- 
cribably grand & beautiful, at the distance of a quarter of a 
mile is seen the Humble tomb of the illustrious Washington 
known only by the little willows & cypress that wave their 
melancholy branches over it. I walked down with a solemn and 
awful sensation to this sacred spot, the housekeeper offerd to 
run & fetch the key but as the grownd was damp and we per- 
ceived Mrs W. walking in the Piazza we declined, she shewd 
us into the breakfast Room, where was a most sumptious en- 
tertainment which we did ample justice to after our long walk, 
our visit was now made, but I assure you it was very difficult 
to get away, she urged us in the most flattering manner to re- 
main a few days with her : I sincerely regretted that it was not 
in my power as I was facinated with every thing about me. we 
dined again in Alexandria and slept in Washington on Monday 
night, and now my dear Mary you will not say I have omitted 
any part of this rout, and any deficiencies that you may name 
I will endeavor to make good. I have been trying to finish this 
letter since Monday it is now thursday & I declined going to 
the georgtown Assembly where Betsy my Hub. & all the beaux 
are, determined to seal it this night, perhaps you will say better 
for me when I tell you I was dancing Cotillions till two on Teus- 
day Ngt, and dined at the presidents today with 30 gentlemen 
and Ladies a select and agreable party — and tomorrow dear 
Mary we rise at five and depart for Philadelphia from which 
place I hope to give you an accurate detail of fashion, in the 



148 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

meantime wear your wig with a wreath of flowers thro — or a 
band of crape folded thick with a long end hanging down on 
the right side with a silk, or silver, or bead, tassell & two hand- 
some large feathers on the back part, falling forward, a fine 
muslin trimmed with a fine lace without starch is very pretty 
if you wear a muslin dress. I advise you to harbour no evil con- 
jectures about your sister who is in better health and as good 
spirits as you generally find her. . . . 

Otis's letters which followed his wife to Philadelphia 
are full of details on the exciting incidents of the last two 
months of the Federalist era, — the attempt to renew the 
Sedition and the Judiciary Acts, and the choice between 
Jefferson and Burr for the presidency. 19 They also show 
that the good people of Georgetown were doing their 
best to make their guests forget the splendors of Mr. 
Breck's dinners and Mrs. Bingham's balls. On February 
1,1801, Otis writes: 

Since my last I have dined with Plater and tried my luck once 
more at a ball at Lingans. The Col & I went together, and the 
evening being pleasant, we ascended the rock on which the house 
is situated & returned without danger. Our entertainment 
consisted first of tea, served out about 8 oclock. Then the 
dancing continued without interruption untill twelve. After that 
chocolate in cups with dry toast was handed round among the 
ladies, and after that, the gentlemen were regaled in a back par- 
lour with a cold ham, mutton & tongue. 

I have concluded to go to no more balls, for though the party 
here was on the whole agreeable & genteel yet they have all the 
strangest way of assorting people in the world. There was 3 
or 4 federal members of Congress, together with Christie Ran- 
dolph Dawson Holmes & Van Cortlandt, and I confess I do not 
enjoy myself with these people. 

The objectionable gentlemen were prominent Repub- 
licans from Maryland, Virginia, and New York. It was 
quite natural for one who had been the target of John 

19 See chap. xii. 



THE REPUBLICAN COURT 149 

Randolph's bony finger and callow invective to take 
exception to his presence at an evening entertainment; 
but the only objection to the others was the mere fact 
that they were Democrats. Otis evidently preferred the 
strictly Federalist society of Philadelphia. 

On February 15, 1801, Otis describes similar gather- 
ings: 

My dearest friend 

If I mistake not I mentioned in my last that I was at John- 
sons and at Burrows' balls the last week so that you see the 
fatigue of electioneering was diversified by other fatigue. At 
Johnsons the party was made brilliant by the presence of several 
really fine and fashionable Annapolitans. The supper however 
was shabby beyond all former precedent. A sideboard with a 
round of cold beef & a ham which the dear ladies were obliged 
to eat on their blessed knees, presented the sum total of the 
appropriation for the craving demands of divers florid and car- 
nivorous animals of both sexes. Still the evening was sufficiently 
agreeable, and I have since learnt that I made a conquest of a 
very charming young lady from the Metropolis of Maryland, 
to whom I was not introduced & did not speak. What a misfor- 
tune to be so irresistible. 

We fared still better chez Burrows. Fine music & an elegant 
supper were among the consolations for disappointment at the 
absence of many guests who were prevented by weather. Sally 
and her mamma acquitted themselves in their most amiable 
manner. Huger 20 danced on his toes as usual with every flirt 
in the room, while his sedate and venerable lady bedizzened 
& bejewelled kept a stedfast and deploring eye upon his eccen- 
tric follies, and turned a deaf ear to the civilities and sighs of 

those who surrounded her. Mrs B took care to apprise me 

that this party was originally intended for Betsy Francis & 
yourself. That the cake was actually made while you were here, 
but that a series of accidents foreign and domestic, and of in- 
terferences & disappointments enough to melt a heart of stone 
compelled them to defer it untill this moment. 

Thus you see I continue to trifle away the residue of my weari- 

20 Benjamin Huger, a member of Congress from South Carolina. 



150 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

some pilgrimage; I will not say here how much I miss you . 
A carriage this moment stops to take me to the capitol and I 
must close this letter or lose this mail. 

The gallant little note of February 23, here reproduced 
in facsimile, concludes this series of letters, in which we 
can readily perceive that the removal of the federal 
government to Washington had caused a serious rift in 
the alliance between society and politics. The Demo- 
cratic revolution of 1800 effectually completed this 
break. No Republican Court was possible with the 
materials of the Jeffersonian epoch or the setting of the 
backwoods village that Washington remained for many 
years. Thomas Jefferson, in soiled corduroy breeches and 
slippers down at the heel, receiving the British minister 
at the White House, is as typical of the new order, as 
were Washington's stately levees and Mrs. Bingham's 
balls of the old regime. Aristocracy was beheaded by the 
peaceful guillotine of the ballot, and the plain people, led 
by the apostle of Democracy, reigned in its place. 








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FACSIMILE LETTER OF HARRISON GRAY OTIS 



CHAPTER X 

ADAMS ASSERTS HIMSELF 
1798-1799, mt. 33-34 

In the interval between the second and third sessions 
of the Fifth Congress, from July to December, 1798, an 
important change took place in the state of relations with 
France. The Directory, alarmed at the unexpected spirit 
of resentment in the United States, promised to receive 
an American minister in Paris, and removed obstacles to 
negotiation by ordering the destruction of American 
commerce to cease. On the question whether France 
should be taken at her word, or a policy of no treaty with 
France, and war to the death, should be followed, the 
Federal party split in two. 

After the three envoys in Paris sent off the X. Y. Z. 
dispatches, in January, 1798, they prolonged the quasi- 
negotiations with Talleyrand and his agents for three 
months. By that time, since Talleyrand refused either 
to call off his commerce destroyers or to receive the 
envoys, and hinted that Gerry alone of the three would 
be an acceptable medium of negotiations, Pinckney and 
Marshall decided to leave France. The only proper 
thing for Gerry to have done under those circumstances 
was to leave likewise. Flattered, however, by Talley- 
rand's intimations that he alone could effect what the 
three together could not, and fearful of "provoking" 
France into a declaration of war, he remained in Paris 
three months longer, patiently enduring the alternate 
bluffing and bullying of Talleyrand. Finally this treat- 



152 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

ment became too much for him, and he demanded his 
passports. At this point, however, news reached France 
of the rising spirit in America, and of the new system of 
maritime reprisals enacted by the Fifth Congress. 
Talleyrand saw at once that he had overreached himself. 
The French party in America was not so strong, nor 
public spirit so humble, as he had been led to expect. 
His idea, as we have seen, was not to make war on the 
United States, but to force it, if possible, into giving 
indirect aid to France against Great Britain, and to gain 
time in order to secure Louisiana from Spain. He now 
perceived that he must renounce the first in order to gain 
the second object. Gerry was detained, therefore, in 
France, long enough to be shown that the Directory 
intended to mend its manners. Talleyrand substituted 
whining for bullying in his diplomatic notes; he resigned 
all demands for an apology or a loan; he promised to 
receive any envoy whom the United States might see fit 
to send. He suddenly pretended to have discovered the 
piratical activities of French agents in the West Indies, 
about which the American Government had been com- 
plaining for two years, and ordered them to cease; and 
the Directory lifted an embargo which had been laid on 
American vessels in French ports. This change of tactics 
was a triumph for the spirited national policy of the 
Federal party, a complete justification of its leaders' 
claim that the only way to get justice from France was 
to retaliate. 1 

Meanwhile, Gerry's conduct in remaining in Paris as 
Talleyrand's butt after the other envoys had departed, 
was the object of bitter attack from high Federalists. 
Gerry had been suspected by them from the first, since 
his conversion to Federalism was of recent date and 

1 Cf . Codman's letter from Paris at end of this chapter. 



ADAMS ASSERTS HIMSELF 153 

incomplete, and his lack of judgment was now ascribed to 
"French Influence." John Adams, at first, was as much 
mortified as any one at Gerry's conduct, but, when 
Pickering threatened to expose "not his pusillanimity 
and weakness alone, but his duplicity and treachery," 
the President rallied to the support of his old friend* 2 
His private conversation began to show so alarming a 
tendency to vindicate Gerry at the expense of his col- 
leagues, that the Essex Junto, after consulting among 
themselves, sent Otis to Quincy in order to tell the 
President "how much his frankness exposes himself and 
his friends." 3 This was but one of many instances in 
which Otis's superior tact secured him the honor of per- 
forming some particularly delicate or disagreeable politi- 
cal mission. That he succeeded in this case is evident 
from a temporary cessation of complaints about the 
President's garrulity; but it is left to our imagination to 
discover by what means young Otis managed to convince 
a pompous and irascible old gentleman, twice his age, 
that he talked too much. 

About a week before Otis's visit to the President took 
place (October 28), Gerry himself arrived in Boston. 
"He landed at Long Wharf about one," wrote Manasseh 
Cutler. 4 "The Federalists, by agreement, took not the 
least notice of him as he walked up State Street; not a 
hat was moved." Although feigning indifference, the 
Federalists were most anxious lest Gerry follow Monroe's 
example and vindicate his conduct in France by attacking 
the Federalist foreign policy. It was thought best to send 
some one to fathom his intentions, and, as usual, Otis 
was selected for the task. At the interview, according to 
a letter of George Cabot, 

2 King, n, 397; Adams, Works, vm, 596, GIG. 
8 Gibbs, n, 110. * Life of Manasseh Cutler, n, 8. 



154 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

Mr Otis intimated to him the state of public opinion concern- 
ing him : that the friends of the government were not satisfied, 
and that its enemies had calculated upon finding in him a char- 
acter round which they might rally with new spirit. He replied 
that he was sensible of the predicament in which he stood, but 
he thought it an ill compliment to his understanding to suppose 
he could be made subservient to the designs of the opposition. 5 

Gerry was as good as his word. Although Federalist 
abuse of him continued, and Jefferson made a wily appeal 
to his personal vanity to air his grievances, he made no 
complaint, and even issued a statement indorsing the 
Federalist policy. 

Shortly after performing these political embassies, 
Otis was reelected to Congress. His opponent was Gen- 
eral William Heath, — to whom his published letter on 
the arming of merchant vessels had been addressed, — 
and a far more popular and formidable adversary than 
James Bowdoin had been in 1796. The usual duel be- 
tween the Centinel and the Chronicle took place both 
before and after the election. General Heath, who at the 
worst was but a well-meaning old soldier, not blessed 
with over-much brain, was attacked in the Centinel as 
"the ridiculous, despicable, weak-minded, weak-hearted 
Jacobin, commonly distinguished by the appellation of 
the Hero of Fort Independence" a good example of the 
insolence of Federalism in 1798. The Chronicle made no 
personal attack on Otis, but charged upon the Sedition 
Law and the Direct Tax, which over half the Republicans 
had voted for, and endeavored to turn to advantage the 
rural prejudice against lawyers. It was argued that there 
were too many lawyers in Congress, that the Sedition 
Act and the "land tax" were adopted by lawyers in 
order to make more business for themselves. Let the 
yeomanry go to the polls, and outvote the foreigners and 

6 H. C. Lodge, Cabot, 179. 



ADAMS ASSERTS HIMSELF 155 

negroes who secured a majority for Ames and Otis in 
former elections. 6 The popularity of the Federalist for- 
eign policy is shown by the fact that no one ventured to 
attack that phase of Otis's activity, beyond the state- 
ment that his calling Frenchmen "pyrates, rogues, etc.," 
was a bar to negotiation. General Heath's candidature 
was even announced in one instance as that of a "Con- 
stitutional Federalist." 7 

In the electioneering Otis took no part. Happily for 
the peace of mind and the pocketbook of a candidate in 
those days, any active participation in his own campaign 
was considered highly improper. But that zealous efforts 
were made on both sides, is indicated by the size of the 
vote, which was twenty-seven per cent greater than that 
of 1796, a presidential year. All the increase in Boston 
went to Otis, but in the rural part of the district General 
Heath polled more than twice as many votes as his 
opponent. The Chronicle's campaign against lawyers 
and the "land tax" was evidently effective. 

Political intolerance was fast becoming a leading char- 
acteristic of the entire Federal party. Otis, during the 
winter session of Congress, led an attack on Dr. Logan, a 
Philadelphia Quaker and Democrat who had gone on a 
secret mission to France in order to prevent war. 8 Luck- 
ily for him, the ex post facto provision in the Constitution 
shielded him from punishment, but no mercy was shown 
to persons who made themselves amenable to the Sedition 

6 Chronicle, November 1 and 5, 1798. 

7 Chronicle, November 5. In Newark, New Jersey, the Democrats an- 
nounced their own nominations as the "Federal Republican Ticket," and those 
of the Federalists as the "Federal Aristocratic Ticket." Chronicle, October ZZ. 
Ten years later the tables were turned, and Federalist tickets were concealed 
under such names as "American," "True Republican," "Anti-Embargo," etc. 

8 See letter of Joseph Woodward, at end of chapter, for Otis's part in the 
Logan affair. 



156 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

Law. Federal judges enforced it rigorously, and stimu- 
lated grand juries to present cases. The first victim was 
Matthew Lyon, "the beast," the hero of the spitting 
episode in Congress. He was convicted, fined, and im- 
prisoned for charging the President, among other things, 
with " unbounded thirst for ridiculous pomp, foolish adu- 
lation, and selfish avarice." One Baldwin of Newark was 
fined one hundred dollars for expressing the wish that 
the wadding of a cannon, discharged in honor of the 
President while passing through that town, might find 
lodgment in his posterior. John Lovejoy of Dedham was 
committed to jail for erecting a liberty pole with the 
inscription — 

Liberty and Equality! 
The Vice President and the Minority ! 
A Speedy Retirement to the President ! 

No Sedition Bill! No Alien Bill! 
Downfall to the Tyrants of America! 9 

This persecution extended even into the affairs of private 
life. To quote a contemporary: "Friendships were dis- 
solved, tradesmen dismissed, and custom withdrawn from 
the Republican party, the heads of which, as objects of 
the most injurious suspicion, were recommended to be 
closely watched, and committees of Federalists were ap- 
pointed for that purpose." 10 

This whole phase of Federalist policy shows the party's 
fundamental defect, — a disregard of popular ideas and 
opinions; a policy suicidal to a party that had to depend 
for its support on the people's suffrage. John Marshall, 
alone among prominent Federalists, dared publicly to 

» Russell's Gazette, April 1, 1799. Fisher Ames complained of the "tardiness 
and apathy on the part of the government, in avenging this insult on law. . . . 
The government must display its power, in terrorem, or, if that be neglected or 
delayed, in earnest." Works, I, 247. 

10 Deborah Logan, Memoir of Dr. George Logan, 54-55. 



ADAMS ASSERTS HIMSELF 157 

express his disapproval of the Sedition Act. For this 
independence of mind he received the unqualified denun- 
ciation of the Eastern party leaders. "Otis . . . condemns 
him ore rotundo," wrote Fisher Ames; "False federalists, 
or such as act wrong from false fears, should be dealt 
hardly by, were I Jupiter Tonans." "What does he 
mean?" inquired another member of the Junto. "I 
sometimes have been led to think that some of the Vir- 
ginia Federalists are little better than half-way Jac- 
obins." n If dislike of the Sedition Act was to be the 
test of Jacobinism, then most assuredly a majority of the 
American people were half-way, if not fully, Jacobins. 

Meanwhile, the Federal party was gradually being 
shifted into two rival factions. Their nuclei had been 
formed years before, in the personal rivalry and mutual 
distrust that existed between John Adams and Alexander 
Hamilton. The President, who always had regarded 
Hamilton as an impudent upstart, resented the respect 
accorded his opinion in the Federal party; Hamilton, on 
the other hand, considered Adams a vain and pompous 
old man, totally unfit for his high position. During the 
election of 1796, he publicly announced his desire that 
Thomas Pinckney should be brought in as president over 
Adams's head, contrary to the express agreement of the 
party caucus. 

A quarter of a century later, when he was eighty-seven 
years old, John Adams wrote Otis a number of letters on 
the events of 1798 and 1799. In the concluding letter of 
the series he remarked, "the amount of my former letters 
to you is this; that all the sovereignty then existing in the 
nation was in the hands of Alexander Hamilton." The 
old gentleman here describes the exact state of affairs. 
At no period in the history of the United States has one 

11 H. C. Lodge, Cabot, 179. 



158 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

man possessed so potent an influence over the federal 
government as Alexander Hamilton exerted during 
Washington's second administration, and the first half 
of his successor's. John Adams was susceptible to in- 
fluence, when skillfully handled and flattered, and he 
made an initial mistake in taking over Washington's 
Cabinet, which contained three men, Timothy Pickering, 
Oliver Wolcott, and James McHenry, devoted to Hamil- 
ton and used to taking orders from him. The President's 
opening address to the Fifth Congress was an unconscious 
echo of Hamilton's suggestions to the Cabinet. In a sim- 
ilar manner, all important steps in executive policy, 
during the first two years of Adams's administration, 
originated in Hamilton's brain. General Washington, the 
lieutenant-general of the army, deferred to him in all 
things, and his influence helped to force Hamilton's 
policies on the President. Said the victim of this system 
to Otis, after twenty-five years, "I cannot review that 
tragicomic farce, grave as it was to me, without laughing. 
I was as President a mere cipher, the government was in 
the hands of an oligarchy consisting of a triumvirate who 
governed every one of my five ministers; both houses of 
Congress were under their absolute direction." 

At the beginning of the third session of the Fifth Con- 
gress, in December, 1798, Otis's experience and ability 
were recognized by an appointment to the important 
position of Chairman of the Committee on Defense. The 
following letter, which he wrote to Hamilton a few days 
after this event, shows that he, too, was completely un- 
der Hamilton's influence. 

Philadelphia, Dec. 21, 1798. 
Sir: 

I was very solicitous while you were in the city for the in- 
dulgence of an interview with you, that would have enabled 



ADAMS ASSERTS HIMSELF 159 

me to learn your opinion in relation to such defensive measures 
as ought now to be adopted by Congress; and I called upon you 
once with that view; but being then disappointed and perceiv- 
ing afterwards the pressing nature of your immediate avoca- 
tions, I chose rather to forego the advantage of your sentiments, 
than invade the little leisure you appeared able to command. 
Being since appointed chairman of a committee to consider the 
policy of extending our internal means of defence, the great con- 
fidence which I feel in the correctness of your political opinions, 
and your permission on a former occasion to avail myself of 
them, induce me to request that I may be honoured with your 
general ideas upon this subject, if you can without inconven- 
ience devote an hour to my instruction. In particular, is it ad- 
visable to augment the present permanent army under all cir- 
cumstances? If not, would it be eligible to reduce the number 
of men in each regiment, with a view to economy, and to an 
application of the money saved to the extension of the naval 
armament? or are there any prominent defects in the military 
establishment which demand a reform? 

Will there be any utility in reviving the section of the act 
which establishes the provisional army, or the act for provid- 
ing for the draft of 80,000 militia? 

Does good policy demand very liberal grants of money for 
fortifications? 

Is it expedient to continue the act prohibiting intercourse 
with France and her acknowledged dominions? If so, as the 
act now stands, may commerce be carried on between the 
United States and any part of the French dominions that shall 
withdraw from its allegiance to the parent country? or, if this be 
doubtful, would it be politic to grant an express commission 
to the President to open the trade with any part of the French 
dominions, when, in his opinion, the public good would admit 
or require it? 

Shall the President be authorized to attack, capture, and hold 
all or any of the French West India islands as an indemnity for 
the spoliations committed on our trade? 

If on this, or any other subjects, you see fit to gratify me with 
your opinions, they will be cherished and respected by me with- 
out a disclosure of the source from which they are derived ; and 
if, on the other hand, you think this liberty is not warranted 



160 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

by the duration or intimacy of my personal acquaintance, 
you will, I hope, excuse and impute it to an habitual and pro- 
found respect for your character and talents. 

I am, Sir, 

Your most obedient servant, 
H. G. Otis. 12 

This unhealthy state of affairs could endure only by 
the President's ignorance of the fact that he was being 
led. Down to June, 1798, he was wholly unsuspicious; 
but that summer arose the complication about major- 
generals, which opened his eyes. This incident need not 
detain us here; suffice it to say that Adams wished to 
give the three major-generals of the new army, Knox, 
Pinckney, and Hamilton, the priority of rank that they 
possessed in the Revolutionary army, which would have 
placed Hamilton at the foot, and that Hamilton and his 
friends in the Cabinet, who wished him to be virtual 
commander-in-chief, used all their efforts to have the old 
order rescinded in his favor. After General Washington 
had used his influence in this direction, the President 
sulkily complied, but, as he wrote McHenry, "there 
has been too much intrigue in this business." From that 
point began the parting of the ways between the Presi- 
dent and the Hamiltonian wing of his party. 

During the third session of the Fifth Congress, from 
December, 1798, to March, 1799, Otis, as Chairman of 
the Committee on Defense, recommended to Congress 
the measures that Hamilton desired, and secured the 
passage of most of them. 13 It was also during this session 
that the Federal party was given an opportunity to show 
that it could repel aggression from England as well as 
from France. In November, 1798, Captain Loring, of the 

12 Reprinted from Hamilton, Works, vi, 377. 

13 Hamilton's replies to Otis's letter of December 21 are printed in his 
Works, vi, 379, 390. 



ADAMS ASSERTS HIMSELF 161 

British frigate Carnatic, boarded the American twenty- 
gun ship Baltimore, took off fifty-five of the crew, and 
impressed five of them. It was a worse outrage than 
the Chesapeake affair of 1807, but it attracted less in- 
terest on account of the naval war with France that 
was going on. In the House of Representatives, on 
December 31, 1798, Otis proposed a resolve, calling for 
information concerning the assault, "as we think it 
necessary to show Great Britain and the world that in- 
stances of abuse of this kind excite a lively sensibility, 
and that we are determined to protect our flag against 
any country whatever." A vigorous protest was made 
by the State Department, and the British government 
apologized. 

The most interesting problem, however, of this winter 
session was the question of how to treat the changed 
policy of France. It proved to be a rock on which the 
Federal party split. In his annual address of December 
8, 1798, the President indicated that his mind was 
favorably inclined toward the friendly advances of 
Talleyrand. This attitude aroused violent indignation 
in the ranks of the Hamiltonian Junto, for accommoda- 
tion with France was no part of their system. Hamilton 
and his friends considered the French overtures as fur- 
ther evidence of duplicity. Stephen Higginson, of the 
Essex Junto, wanted a headlong plunge into the Euro- 
pean political system, a British alliance, and a treaty of 
guarantee at the end of the war; 14 Hamilton wrote Otis, 
and other members of Congress, demanding war with 
France by the summer, a permanent standing army, and 
an attack on Florida, Louisiana, and South America. 
He was then coquetting with Francisco de Miranda's 
gigantic project for the liberation of Spanish America by 

14 1896 Reports of the American Historical Association, i, 817, 819, 821. 



162 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

an American army and a British fleet, with Louisiana 
and Florida a share for the Unitea States in the plunder. 

Hamilton's schemes might to-day be regarded re- 
spectfully if Napoleon had not seen fit, in 1803, to toss us 
Louisiana, "as a sultan throws a purse of gold to a 
favorite." Talleyrand's overtures were sincere in that 
he wished to avoid war, and was willing to renounce the 
hope of a loan or a secret alliance. They were insincere 
in that one of his reasons for avoiding war was a desire 
to gain time for the peaceful acquisition of Louisiana. 
Even Thomas Jefferson could write, when he heard of 
the success of this policy in 1802, "The day that France 
takes possession of New Orleans, ... we must marry 
ourselves to the British fleet and nation." Yet in 1798 
Hamilton's design was impossible to accomplish. The 
United States was no field for the Old- World policy of 
foreign war to quell domestic discontent. Well might 
Adams feel, as he wrote Otis, "this man is stark mad, or 
I am. He knows nothing of the character, the principles, 
the feelings, the opinions and prejudices of this nation. 
If Congress should adopt this system, it would produce 
an instantaneous insurrection of the whole nation from 
Georgia to New Hampshire." One needs only to read the 
Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions of 1798, to perceive 
that such a plan as Hamilton's would not have been 
supported six months by the people of the United States. 

Hamilton and the Cabinet, then, decided to treat 
Talleyrand's overtures as insincere, and declare war on 
France. They counted as usual on the acquiescence of the 
President, for, in spite of his peaceful message of Decem- 
ber 8, he permitted Pickering, during the following month, 
to issue as a state paper a pungent analysis of the Talley- 
rand-Gerry correspondence, the object of which was to 
expose the French statesman's insincerity. Shortly after 



ADAMS ASSERTS HIMSELF 1C3 

this, however, there suddenly dawned on John Adams 
the extent to which he had been led by Hamilton and 
the cabinet cabal. Convinced in his own mind that the 
French desired peace, and determined henceforth to be 
President in fact as well as in name, he sent to the Senate 
on February 18, 1799, a message that sent Hamilton's 
dreams of glory to the limbo of shattered ambitions. 
This message, which arrived like a projectile out of a 
clear sky, was the nomination of a minister plenipoten- 
tiary to the French Republic. 

The President's policy was undoubtedly right, but his 
manner of carrying it out was a typical instance of his 
tactlessness. He had taken this radical departure in 
foreign policy without consulting a single member of the 
Cabinet. No wonder, then, that Hamilton and his power- 
ful following smelt treachery in the act. Words cannot 
describe the feelings of mingled rage, astonishment, and 
disappointment with which they received it. 15 They 
controlled the majority in the Senate, but, conscious that 
public opinion would side with the President, they dared 
not reject his nomination. A compromise, however, was 
effected ; the Senate agreed to confirm a peace commission 
of three, instead of a single envoy, and the President 
promised not to send them to France until the French 
government sent unequivocal assurances that they 
would be properly received. 

The attitude of CHis on this momentous occasion was 
wise and moderate. That he deplored as much as any 
one the President's action, is evident from his correspon- 
dence. 16 Otis was too much under Hamilton's influence 

15 The tense feeling at Philadelphia is well illustrated by a graphic descrip- 
tion of a dinner at the President's, in a letter he wrote Otis a half-century later. 
Printed at end of this chapter. 

16 "And well may you be in affliction," etc., in Mason's letter of February 
27, 1799, at end of this chapter. 



164 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

to view the inception of negotiations with France other- 
wise than as a calamity. Yet his political commonsense 
taught him what Hamilton and his more ardent followers 
utterly failed to see, that the only course now open to the 
Federal party was to follow where the President led. 17 
Any attempt to thwart him would render the dangerous 
rift in the party permanent and irreparable. Most Feder- 
alists thought as Otis did, 18 but a real danger to party 
harmony lay in the headstrong intolerance of Hamilton 
and the Essex Junto. 

Otis did his best to preserve harmony and gain ad- 
herents to the President's policy by writing a series of 
articles addressed to the inflexible anti-gallicans in his 
party. They were published anonymously under the 
heading "The Envoy" in RusselVs Gazette, early in 
April, 1799. He begins by stating that the most "respect- 
able and patriotic characters," who have followed French 
policy in Europe, feel that "Gallic faith affords no basis 
for a safe or advantageous treaty," and desire helium 
usque ad inter -necionem. But although their fears may 
be well founded, and although "a continued exertion and 
display of our energies might invigorate the tone of the 
government . . . and increase our importance in the esti- 

17 Stephen Higginson wrote Timothy Pickering from Boston, March 24, 
1799: " Mr. Ames, Cabot and myself were at Jona Masons, where we had a free 
conversation with Otis, Lee of the Maine, and Gordon of N: H: on the subject 
of the late mission. Otis professes to think of the measure as we have all done, 
he views it, he says, as an unfortunate injudicious One, tending to induce great 
Evils, and incapable of effecting any good; but he is evidently disposed to 
palliate and soften as much as possible. ... he will deprecate and oppose any- 
thing like a disapprobation of the measure; but has pledged himself not to 
approve, he will be for avoiding both, and will pass unnoticed expressions 
which may call for attention, a conduct which will be construed into a tacit 
approbation, and incur the displeasure of the combined powers, while it divides 
the federalists and strengthens the Jacobins." 1896 Report of the American 
Historical Association, i, 832. 

18 All but two Federalist newspapers supported the President. Cf. Steiner, 
McIIenry, 407-08, Wm. Jay, John Jay, n, 296; King, in, 183. 



ADAMS ASSERTS HIMSELF 165 

mation of foreign nations," public sentiment would not 
for a moment support such a system in the face of the 
French offers. "In the opinion of many intelligent men," 
evidently including Otis himself, war should have been 
declared by Congress during the second session, and, 
owing to this "fatal and impolitic omission, the popular 
zeal and enthusiasm" had subsided "for want of im- 
pulse/' The only way of repairing this error is "by con- 
vincing the people that no occasion of preserving peace 
has been omitted, and by affording to them another 
instance of the duplicity and perfidy of France," — an 
argument intended to reach the war Federalists. The 
light and informal character of the French overtures has 
been taken, Otis says, as a proof of insincerity, but "we 
can never treat, if we must be first satisfied of the sin- 
cerity of France." We must "put their sincerity to the 
touchstone more than once by taking them at their 
word." Our honor and dignity will not be impaired 
by the President's policy. The King of England has 
twice instituted peace negotiations with France dur- 
ing the present war, and with most happy results on 
public opinion. A comparison on the score of honor and 
dignity is not disadvantageous to us. "Can we make 
war with success, if we reject overtures apparently 
pacific?" 

If Hamilton and the Essex Junto had followed this 
sound advice, the fatal split would have been averted; 
but they did not listen to it. The orthodoxy of Otis's 
Federalism had long been suspected, as we have seen, by 
the inflexible gentlemen who composed the Essex Junto. 
Timothy Pickering, a few weeks after receiving Higgin- 
son's account of Otis's opinions, in the letter just quoted, 
was told that Otis was talking rather freely of an "oli- 
garchic faction " that intended to control the government 



166 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

and elect the next President. 19 A groundless rumor, then 
in circulation, to the effect that Otis coveted Pickering's 
position of Secretary of State 20 must also have reached 
his ears. It was wholly natural, then, that Pickering, 
tenacious of his office, and ever on the lookout for politi- 
cal defection, should put the worst possible construction 
on Otis's course of action, and ascribe his endeavors 
for party harmony to the unworthy motive of place- 
hunting. In answer to Higginson he wrote on December 
23, 1799: 

[Otis] has two principal objects in view: to please the Presi- 
dent, & merit his favour; and to acquire 'popularity. [I urge 
you, and all your] intelligent friends, to whom alone it is prac- 
ticable, to take some measures, which may controul the pro- 
jects of Mr. Otis. It is possible you may present to his view some 
things more alarming than his present pursuits are alluring. 
Vain and ambitious, without principles to controul these dan- 
gerous passions, he will work, perhaps fatal mischiefs. The rem- 
edy should be speedily applied. I have authority for believing 

that he is, and for some time has been, the tool of 21 and 

the father a miserable tale-bearer. The insinuating address of 
the former, and the apparent simplicity of the latter, qualify 
them for their respective offices. 22 

Among the Adams papers is a document that seems at 
first glance to confirm Pickering's unflattering estimate 
of Otis's motives for supporting the President's policy. 
It is a letter from Otis to the President, dated February 
21, 1799 (three days after the nomination of a minister to 
France), in which Otis requests for himself the appoint- 
ment of Secretary of the Legation at Paris, "if it could be 

19 See above, note 17, and below, p. 182. 

20 Gibbs, ii, 315. 21 Left blank in the manuscript. 

22 Pickering MSS., xn, 371-75. Higginson replied with some further attacks 
on Otis's character. Otis, apparently, was unconscious of the enmity Pickering 
and Higginson felt toward him. 



ADAMS ASSERTS HIMSELF 167 

accompanied with a provisional appointment to succeed 
the Minister at the Hague in the event of his being re- 
ceived at Paris." It is clear, then, that Otis expected to 
derive personal benefit from the new policy. But this 
expectation did not last long, for the President refused 
him the desired position; and as he nevertheless remained 
faithful to the Adams wing of the party during the elec- 
tion of 1800, he must have acted from principle, and not 
from mere hope of personal advancement. 

John Adams was only intermittently bold; he was in- 
capable of carrying out his peace policy consistently. 
Instead of dismissing the Hamiltonian members of the 
Cabinet, and appointing men who would be loyal to him 
and his policy, he not only retained them in office, but. 
left them in charge of the government while he passed 
the spring and summer at Quincy. The result of his 
indecision was a brief Hamiltonian restoration; and 
when, in May, 1799, a definite welcome to the new mis- 
sion came from Talleyrand, and the President ordered 
his Secretary of State to make preparations for its de- 
parture, Pickering procrastinated. 23 By October, after 
an absence of seven months from the seat of government, 
John Adams finally awoke to the situation, hastened to 
Philadelphia, reasserted his power with his customary 
tactlessness, and sent off the envoys to France without 
consulting his Cabinet. Henceforth the breach in the 
party was irreparable. Hamilton and Pickering were not 
the sort of men to maintain even a nominal loyalty to 
a chief who thus spurned their advice and flouted their 
policy. 

23 Hamilton and his friends hoped that the success of Archduke Charles and 
Suvarov would soon bring Louis XVIII to his own, and avoid all necessity of 
negotiating with the Directory. Correspondence between John Adams arid Wm. 
Cunningham (1823). letter xiv; Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 
xii, 409. 



r 



168 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 



LETTERS ON FRENCH RELATIONS AND THE LOGAN 

AFFAIR 

RICHARD CODMAN 24 TO OTIS 

Paris 26 August 1798 
My dear Sir 

At a crisis like the present I thought it might be agreable 
to you to receive a letter from an old friend & acquaintance 
whose principles you know, and who from having resided so 
long in this country may be supposed capable of giving pretty 
accurate information on the actual situation of public affairs 
here, & particularly as regards the present disposition of this 
Goverment towards that of America. Mr. Gerry will have 
made you acquainted with the change that had taken place 
before his departure from Paris viz. The total relinquishment 
of all demands of a loan, or money in any shape, a desire to put 
aside all recriminations for injurious speeches on the one part 
or the other, & an arrete of the Directory recalling all Commis- 
sions granted to Privateers and ordering new ones to be issued 
under certain restrictions to respect the neutral flag. 

By the last note from Mr Talleyrand to Mr Gerry you will 
also have observed the assurances of the french Goverment to 
receive the person the American Govern, might chuse to send 
to settle finally the existing differences. Such was the state of 
affairs when Mr Gerry left us, the Directory have been induced 
to make this essential alteration in their conduct from the re- 
presentations made to them by Dupont, Kosciusko, Volney & 
others lately from America, Dupont particularly in a memoire 
he has lately presented to them has so opened their Eyes respect- 
ing the horrid depredations made by their Cruisers in the West 
Indies (of which I believe they were in a great measure before 
ignorant) that they really appear anxious to convince America 
of their desire to redress her grievances, to show this desire un- 
equivocally they have passed an arr&te which releases all 
American Sailors detained in Prisons in the interior & in the 
different Sea-ports. By another arrete they have raised the Em- 
bargo on American vessels, & Mr Skipwith in a note from Mr 

24 Codman was a Boston Federalist, and a classmate of Otis. 



ADAMS ASSERTS HIMSELF 169 

Talleyrand is assured that a minister from America to settle 
finally the disputes will be received in an amicable manner. 
Much has been done to endeavour to persuade the Goverment 
to send a Minister to America to treat at Phila, but there seems 
to be a fear that from the present temper of the American Govt 
he would not be received, they are therefore not inclined to 
risque it. 

Such as I have above stated is the present situation of affairs 
here, the moment is extremely favourable for an accomodation, 
I hope most sincerely that our Goverment will see it in the 
same light & once more risque sending a minister. It is remark- 
able that in the same proportion as the measures of the Ameri- 
can Govt have been vigorous & decided, in that same propor- 
tion has this Govt been better & better disposed, it has been 
owing, in some measure, to their having been lately better in- 
formed of the wrongs we have suffered, & perhaps more than 
all, the Union which has been displayed in America which has 
convinced this Goverment that it is not for their interest to 
force America thus united into the arms of Great Britain, they 
know well that a nation so united would be an encouraging & 
useful ally. 

I hope to God that on the arrival of the dispatches which Mr 
Skipwith sends, by the Vessel that carries this, no declaration 
of War will have taken place or alliance made with great Britain, 
if not & the desire for Peace still continues with our Goverment 
I think they may count on an equal desire on the part of France, 
& a reconcilliation yet be brought about, which ought to be 
desired by all true friends to both countries. 

Doctor Logan of Phila arrived here about 10 days since from 
Hamburg, previous to which the french Goverment had come 
to the determination of taking the measures I have mentioned 
to you, the manner in which he has expressed himself to the 
Directory (for he has had an interview with 3 of them) had been 
very satisfactory to me, he had endeavoured to impress on 
their minds that none but Intriguants & the Enemies of both 
Countries will hold out to them an idea that there will be any 
party in America in case of a War to aid the plans of France or 
assist them in case of invasion, that on the contrary every 
American would regard with horror the very idea of it, & be 
ready to rally around the standard of Goverment to oppose 



170 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

all its Enemies and particularly to resist, with force & energy, 
a foreign invasion. He has fully explained this to Mr Talley- 
rand & in so doing has in iny opinion essentially served his 
Country. 

The measure taken by our Govt to stop all commercial in- 
tercourse with this Country and its dependances has had the 
best effect, it is an arm that may I think be employed to ad- 
vantage against any nation that may in future insult us. . . . 25 

I am with much Esteem Your friend & Obt. Servant 

RlCHD CODMAN 
Copy. Original by Mr Woodward 26 



JOSEPH WOODWARD 27 TO OTIS 

Boston, Jany. 25th 1799. 

Dear Sir, 

In consequence of your letter to our mutual friend Mr Mason, 
I here state to you all the circumstances relative to Dr Logan's 
Memorial to the Minister of foreign Relations in France, which 
I have any Knoledge of. 

After Dr L. had been in paris 10 or 12 days had been many 

25 The remainder of the letter has been quoted above, p. 113. 

26 The original was handed by Otis to the President, on October 28, and by 
him forwarded to Pickering. (Adams to Pickering, October 29, 179S, Adams 
MSS.) It failed to convince the Secretary of State of the Directory's sincerity. 

27 Joseph Woodward was the Boston merchant associated with Otis in the 
Copley land deal of 1795. He was in Paris at the time of Dr. Logan's mission, 
and on his return brought dispatches from the American consul at Paris, which 
Otis delivered to the President, and also a copy of the memorial alluded to in 
this letter. It was shown by Woodward to Otis, to the President (Adams, 
Works, vni, 615), and to other Federalist leaders, and during the Logan debate 
was read aloud by Harper, with pungent comments, on the floor of Congress 
(Annals of Fifth Congress, 2619-25). It contained several exceptionable state- 
ments — one, for instance, urging the French government to be just in order 
to "leave the true American character to blaze forth in the approaching elec- 
tions." Dr. Logan then published a statement ( Annals, 2703, n.), to the effect 
that the memorial was not written by him, but by Otis's friend Richard Cod- 
man, who had urged him to present it to Talleyrand, which he declined to do. 
Naturally this statement caused Otis considerable embarrassment. This letter 
of Woodward is evidently in reply to one from Otis, requesting precise informa- 
tion on the subject. It raises a direct issue of veracity between Woodward and 
Logan. Codman's remarks on Logan in his letter to Otis indicate that he ap- 
proved of the memorial, even if he did not write it. 



ADAMS ASSERTS HIMSELF 171 

times at Talleyrands & at Merlins, I was told he was advised 
by the Minister to profer a Memorial, Stating his opinion, re- 
specting the United States as relating to the french Republick. 
The reason that was given for this was, that If the Directory 
wish'd to bring forward any proposition to the Councils respect- 
ing America, that they might have some document to ground 
it upon, as a change of measures was said to be the Intention 
of their Goverment. 

A day or two after Mr R. Codman showed me draft of a me- 
morial as he said of Dr Logans writing, which the Dr. had re- 
quested him to have copied, by his Clerk in a fair hand, both 
in french & English. This draft was corrected & added to before 
Copying by Mr Barlow at L. request as I understood, then 
written off by Mr Codmands Clerk & given to Dr Logan who 
Deliverd it to Tallerand. This I understood by Mr. Codman 
& I think from the Dr himself. When I was about to leave Paris 
I requested Mr Codman to favor me with a Copy of the Me- 
morial that Dr Logan had presented to the Minister of Foreign 
Affairs. This Copy I did myself the honor to Deliver to the 
President of the U. S. to do with as he might think Proper And 
is the same that has been Published in a Philadelphia news 
Paper as having been read by Mr Harper in the House of Con- 
gress & laid on the Speaker's Table. I am very much surprised 
to hear the Turn that has been given to this transaction by the 
Doer, for certainly I conversed with him myself conserning 
the Memorial & he had not any secrecy about it. I do not re- 
colect any thing further on this Subject. Any use you think 
proper to make of this Letter is at your Discretion. And be- 
lieve me to be very truly your friend 

And Humbel Servant 

Joseph Woodward 

JONATHAN MASON TO OTIS 

Boston Feby 27th, 1799 
Dr Otis 

And well may you be in affliction. If you have any love of 
Country, you must feel at so gross a departure from principles, 
so gross a deriliction of position, & so gross a desertion of party. 28 

28 He refers to the President's nomination of a minister to France. 



172 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

From being respectable in Europe, from having convinced 
Great Britain, & from having associated with all friends to Order, 
Property & Society, we must be content to sacrifice these ad- 
vantages & once again become soothers & suppliants for Peace, 
from a Gang of pityfull robbers, be by them despised & finally 
duped, without attaining in any degree the object of these sac- 
rifices. It will be now seen that the Speech at the Opening of 
the Session, which carried its own evidence of the soil in which 
it grew, was but preparitory to this Step, that it partook of sen- 
timents & policy, which approved & were in unison with those 
of Mr Gerry — That this man the P [resident] has been invari- 
ably determined to support, & in this measure, has resolved 
publickly to sanction his conduct. This appointment declares 
to every American — that the French in the P. opinion, are 
desirous of making a peace with this Country — that they are 
serious in their desires & that there is a fair prospect of its being 
accomplished — further, that it will be equitable, solid & last- 
ing — & that it is our interest to make it. Or why appoint him? 
Can any rational man either in Europe or America, who has 
paid the smallest attention to the Men & Measures of that na- 
tion, join with him in this Opinion. Certainly there is not one. 
Neither does he think so himself. I have too good an Opinion 
of him to suppose, that he would not esteem it a public calamity, 
if the French themselves at this moment, in the present state 
of things, had made such advances, as would have rendered it 
necessary for our Country to have met them. We are not in a 
situation to treat — We are not yet Nationally cloathed. Our 
Country & Govermt is yet assuming & accustoming them- 
selves to National Features. Time is wanting to give these 
Features, stability. Great Britain well disposed, & France pros- 
trate — we could creep along in our Navy, in our Army, in our 
Fortifications, in our Commerce — & all our permanent 
establishments, all of which would be opposed by the one or 
other of these nations, & obstructed with success, were it not 
for the present irregular state of things in this Country & Eu- 
rope. I have ever considered it peculiarly fortunate, that at 
this moment of our marine establishment, Gt. Britain was seri- 
ously disposed to be liberal & make sacrifices. With her Frown 
only, with a critical discussion & attention to quibbles, she 
might totally destroy any strength of ours upon that element. 



ADAMS ASSERTS HIMSELF 173 

How came then this Appointment? From personal considera- 
tions, & deep rooted jealousies. From a conviction in his own 
Mind that he is not the choice of the Federalists — that he is 
the man for the moment, & that they are raising another to 
supercede him. This haunts him day & night, & gives the tone 
to the smallest measure of his administration. It is the weak 
side & there are men enough who know & take the advantage 
of it. It is to be lamented, that he cannot discern, what is as 
visible as the Meridian sun — that a firm adherance, to his 
first measures, adopted from reflection & sanctioned by advice, 
would have secured to him the chair, immortalized his ad- 
ministration & his Fame would have been forgotten only with 
that of his Predecessor. But such things are, & you are now to 
witness — A deriliction of the system of Defence — an evapo- 
ration of National Spirit — a Loss of National Dignity — the 
Frowns of our European friends — the tryumph of our Domes- 
tic enemies — An increase of Jacobinic influence, & God knows, 
but there will be a change of Men & Measures. And how is 
this thing to be avoided? By a remedy scarcely short of the 
Disease. By a proclamation to the World that our administra- 
tion are at points — that the French have an advocate in our 
President — & that with him our senate are at issue upon a 
subject the most important ever agitated in the Councils of 
our Country. I hope this thing will be withdrawn, & if not, I 
hope in God it will be negatived? The Consequences may be 
disagreeable, but in the end, after perhaps bringing our govern- 
ment once again to the Precipice, it will prove a measure ill 
timed, personal, damnable, & deservedly kick'd out of company. 
I have shewn your letter to but few friends, but have been obliged 
to read parts of it to crouds. Since which my friend in the Coun- 
try has shewn me one conformable to yours in all its parts, 

& Jos. Hall has reed one from J P still more so. 

The Old way which is most commonly the best way — is to 
jogg on steadily, independantly, & firmly : — I hope your House 
will not be wanting in this mode. 

Yr friend J Mason 



174 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

JOHN ADAMS TO OTIS 

Quincy February 19th, 1823. 
Dear Sir 

I think you cannot have entirely forgotten a conversation 
at my table; I had invited a small company of ten or a dozen 
gentlemen who had always professed to be my friends, among 
whom were yourself, Mr. Bayard of Delaware, and I think Mr. 
Sedgwick, it is not necessary to recollect any others. It was 
at the time when I had nominated an ambassador to France, 
a measure which produced a real anarchy in the government and 
infinite vexation to me. It was a sombre diner, but, unluckily, 
the subject of the embassy to France was brought upon the 
tapis, I remember not in what manner, or by whom. Mr. 
Bayard began to harangue upon the subject, and, with a dismal 
countenance, a melancholy air, and a Jeremiad tone, began to 
prophesy ill, as near as I can remember, in these words: "Ah! 
It is an unfortunate measure. We know not the consequences 
of it." And he went on in this whining strain, in a long ha- 
rangue, till at last he said "England would certainly be of- 
fended at it, they could not fail to take umbrage and they 
might declare war upon us." 

Upon the maturest reflection, to this hour I am astonished 
that my patience held out so long. What was it but a direct 
attack and insult to me personally, before a select collection of 
persons who ought to have been my cordial friends and sup- 
porters. But this I could have borne; my patience would have 
held out under all that. But I must confess that such is my na- 
ture, that sordid meanness, base hypocrisy, and above all po- 
litical poltroonery in a just and righteous public cause, never 
failed to produce in me an exclamation of contempt and in- 
dignation, that I never could restrain, and Heaven knows, I 
have had trials enough of it, in the course of my life. I broke 
out assertingly upon the occasion, and I said, as nearly as I 
recollect, in these words or others of a similar import : " Mr. Bay- 
ard, I am surprised to hear you express yourself in this man- 
ner; would you prefer a war with France to a war with Eng- 
land, in the present state of the world; would you wish for an 
alliance with Great Britain, and a war with France? If you 
would, your opinions are totally different from mine." Bayard 



ADAMS ASSERTS HIMSELF 175 

replied, "Great Britain is very powerful, her navy is very ter- 
rible." This put me out of all patience; I broke out, "I know 
the power of Great Britain, I have measured its omnipotence 
without treasure, without arms, without ammunition, and 
without soldiers or ships; I have braved and set at defiance all 
her power. In the negotiation with France we had done no 
more than we had a perfect right to do; she had no right, or 
color of right, to take offense at it, and if she did I would not 
regard it a farthing. For in a just and righteous cause I shall 
hold all her policy and power in total contempt." I remember 
that you, Mr. Otis, afterwards said to me you wondered I had 
been so severe upon Bayard, for Bayard was my friend; I an- 
swered you, I knew him to be my friend, and I knew myself to 
be his friend, but for those very reasons I used the greater free- 
dom with him — certainly too great for the dignity of my sta- 
tion. But from my inmost soul, I cannot repent it to this day. 29 

29 As this letter was dictated, I have taken liberties with the spelling and 
punctuation. 



CHAPTER XI 

INTRIGUE AND DEFEAT 

179&-1800. Mt. 33-35 

In the congressional elections which extended from 
April, 1798, to April, 1799, the country at large placed its 
stamp of approval on Federalist policy, and returned the 
largest majority that the party ever enjoyed. It has often 
been assumed that the Federal party was a sectional 
organization, centred chiefly in New England. Federal- 
ism, it is true, held New England as its last stronghold, 
but down to 1801 the party was distinctly a national one. 
New England furnished no more than a due proportion 
of its leaders; the Middle States furnished Hamilton, 
Jay, Dayton, and Bayard; and the South, Harper, 
Marshall, Rutledge, Davie, and the Pinckneys. In the 
elections to the Sixth Congress, the Federal party swept 
the far South, as well as New England, and made sub- 
stantial gains in Virginia and North Carolina. The 
Republican party secured but three members east of the 
Hudson, and but one member south of North Carolina. l 
Hamilton, however, was pessimistic on the outcome of 
the elections; he believed "no real or desirable change 
has been wrought in those States." Two years sufficed 
to show the truth of this surmise. The South, in 1798, 

1 Matthew Lyon of Vermont; in Massachusetts, General Varnum of the 
Middlesex County District, and Phanuel Bishop of the Third Southern District 
(to the east of Rhode Island); General Sumter of Camden District, South 
Carolina. The Federalists thus gained two seats in New England, and four in 
the far South. In North Carolina they gained four seats, and in Virginia, the 
same number. 



INTRIGUE AND DEFEAT 177 

had much to fear from a French invasion, and responded 
to the appeal of a spirited foreign policy. When the 
French peril was over, that section lapsed back again 
into Democracy. 2 Hamilton also perceived that "some 
parts of the Union, which, in time past, have been the 
soundest, have of late exhibited signs of a gangrene begun 
and progressive." Again he was right, for the Republican 
party won six new seats between the Potomac and the 
Hudson, which were permanent gains. 

Otis was present at the opening session of the Sixth 
Congress at Philadelphia on December 2, 1799, and wrote 
Mrs. Otis on the following day: 

Politically speaking, I believe the Session will be agreeable 
and harmonious. There appears nothing to quarrell about, 
and I think you will find less asperity in debate and more good- 
nature between the opposite parties than usual. Old Sedgwick 
is chosen Speaker, & much delighted with the appointment — 
We were however obliged to manage a little to secure this ob- 
ject. 

As Otis suggested in his letter, the character of the de- 
bates in the Sixth Congress differed widely from that in 
the Fifth. Then the Federalists had been the aggressors, 
hammering out a national spirit from a sluggish majority, 
and rashly abusing power when won. In the Sixth Con- 
gress, little trace was left of that exuberance of Federal- 
ism that produced the Sedition Act. Federalist policy 
was now defensive, not aggressive; its object was to main- 
tain a system already established. Even the Essex Junto 
asked no more than an extension of the judiciary. The 
negotiation with France was about to commence, and the 
Federal majority took its cue from the President's sen- 

2 It will be remembered that the Essex Junto considered the Virginia Fed- 
eralists "little better than half-way Jacobins." The two Georgia members of 
the Sixth Congress, and David Stone of North Carolina, all elected as Feder- 
alists, voted steadily with the opposition. 



t'.-' ; 



178 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

sible advice in his opening address: "however it may ter- 
minate, a steady perseverance in a system of national de- 
fence commensurate with our resources and the situation 
of our country is an obvious dictate of wisdom," — in 
other words, he advised them to stand pat. Otis, as Chair- 
man of the Committee on Defense, indorsed this policy in 
a report of January 13, 1800. He recommended that the 
3400 men already enlisted in the twelve new regiments 
be retained, since "the national honor and interest, in 
the present posture of affairs make it prudent and neces- 
sary to continue prepared for the worst event." As a 
concession to considerations of economy, he advised a sus- 
pension of the recruiting service until the "approach of 
danger should compel the Government to resume it." 

The Republican policy of 1800 was to vitiate the Feder- 
alist system by incessant attack, and to hold it up to pop- 
ular detestation and ridicule, with an eye on the coming 
presidential election. The debates were, however, as Otis 
prophesied, far less acrimonious than those of the Fifth 
Congress; and much more time was found for internal 
legislation. "Otis was not so active in this Congress as in 
the last. The novelty of political leadership had worn off, 
and his letters are full of anticipation of the approaching 
end to his congressional career. He and Harper as major- 
ity leaders were quietly superseded by a man greatly their 
superior, John Marshall, who brought judicial modera- 
tion and statesmanlike qualities of the very highest order 
to the service of Federalism. 

The actual work of the session was postponed practi- 
cally a month by the death of Washington on December 
48, 1799. John Nicholas ushered in the New Year with 
an opening shot on the Federalist system, — a resolu- 
tion to repeal the Army Act of July 16, 1798. On January 
11, 1800, Otis wrote: 



14 



INTRIGUE AND DEFEAT 179 

We have had a most busy week, — Mr Nicholas' resolution 
was intended to produce the long debate which is annually the 
result of some jacobin proposition; but as the federalists deter- 
mined to stick to it, and dispatch it in a reasonable time, we have 
continued sitting untill a late hour every afternoon, and have 
consequently found ourselves fatigued and disposed to rest 
after escaping from the polluted atmosphere of the Hall. We 
buried this baby, last evening, and though the debate was long 
and animated and your prating husband speechified an hour, 
there was less acrimony and personal allusion ; & in short more 
decency and attention to feelings than I have ever known on a 
similar occasion. I am glad it is finished, as it is the most im- 
portant question that will be agitated; and the only pitched 
battle that will be fought — and such is the expenditure of 
ammunition & force that none but slight skirmishes will prob- 
ably ensue. 

The debate, which was, indeed, a lengthy one, served 
as a sort of clearing-house for political principles. On the 
one side we hear of the danger of invasion, the awful fate 
of Switzerland, Genoa, etc. (the list had grown appreci- 
ably longer since the day of Otis's maiden speech) ; on the 
other side, the maintenance of an army is denounced as 
oppressive, unduly expensive, and insulting to France. 
The sensation of the debate was furnished by Democracy's 
latest acquisition from Virginia, John Randolph of Roa- 
noake, with his shrill voice, diminutive head, and legs 
"proportioned to the body like a pair of tongs," who de- 
nounced the American army as "mercenaries" and a 
"handful of ragamuffins." 3 Nicholas's resolution was 
finally rejected by the decisive vote of 60 to 39, and Otis's 
proposal to suspend enlistments adopted. 

The only reported speech by Otis during the debate was 
short, but significant. He remarked: 

I confess I have indulged mournful presentiments of the ef- 
fects to be expected from a new treaty. I foresee that, like other 
3 J. Schouler, United States, i, 453. 



ISO HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

nations, we may be compelled to realize that the dangers of 
peace and amity are the most serious dangers. I know that at- 
tempts will be made to demolish the whole defensive fabric 
which we have erected, and to replunge us into that abyss of 
debility and inaction from which we shall never escape a second 
time. With these difficulties I have always thought our Govern- 
ment would be doomed to struggle whenever a treaty should be 
concluded with France, but I did not expect to see at this time 
the axe laid to the root of our whole system. 

His "mournful presentiments" were well justified, 
since the history of the next eleven years showed that 
the American people preferred a foreign policy of "de- 
bility and inaction" to the Federalist policy of defense 
and reprisal. The speech was an indiscreet expression of 
Otis's discontent with the President's policy, which, never- 
theless, he was loyally supporting. 

If any one is under the delusion that the present con- 
gressional practice of frittering away election year by 
making political capital is a modern invention, let him 
read the debates of the Sixth Congress. The Republican 
party in 1800 threw out a net for political martyrs, and 
made an excellent catch of bogus ones, who served equally 
well the purpose of convincing ignorant voters that the 
Federal party was bent on crushing out personal liberty. 
Thomas Nash (alias Jonathan Robbins, and several 
other names) was the leader of this noble army; the 
magic of his name secured countless votes for Jefferson. 
He was an Irishman, accused of murder on a British ves- 
sel, who escaped to the United States. His extradition 
was demanded by the British government, and granted 
by the President, after a claim that Nash had made to 
American citizenship had been proved false. Although 
before his execution in Halifax he confessed his falsehood, 
Nash's confession was completely ignored by the Demo- 
crats, who attempted to censure the President for his 



INTRIGUE AND DEFEAT 181 

"executive usurpation" and "unwonted act of tyranny." 
Concerning this discussion, which consumed much time 
and breath, Otis wrote, March 1, 1800: 

Our Demos are sick of their attempt to inculpate the Execu- 
tive for his conduct in reference to the pirate Robbins. They 
wish to postpone or rather to evade the enquiry, but we hold 
them to it and it will occupy next week. We have begun upon 
the "ways & means," & when the bills relating to these are 
passed, I shall consider the main business of the session finished, 
and hope that three weeks will be sufficient for these objects. 

Other details in the course of congressional business 
are given in Otis's pleasant letters to his wife: 
February 8, 1800: 

You will perceive by the papers that I have offered a resolu- 
tion to the house for adjourning the first monday in april. Some 
of my friends propose to amend it by adding "Provided Mrs 
Otis dont come here before yt time." The fact is that we can 
and ought to adjourn by that time, but I have no idea the re- 
solution will prevail, though it may be carried in our house. My 
object was to hasten and dispatch business, and it has already 
produced that effect. I still persist in my intention to be home 
from the first to the 15 april, "although the heathen may rage 
and the people imagine vain things." 

February 13: 

My resolution to adjourn 1st Monday in april, to my surprise 
passed our house by a large majority, but it will remain some 
time in the Senate. Indeed it would not yet be prudent for the 
Senate to adopt it; for the jacobins would not suffer us to do 
any important business, if we were once fairly committed. It 
will however probably produce the effect to hasten the close of 
the session. However this may be it is my present design to 
leave them the first week in april. Genl Lee says that if Con- 
gress get away in all april he shall tell you when he sees you 
that you have saved the U. S. thirty thousand dollars at 
least. 



182 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

February 22 : 

f I believe that but for me, a committee would have reported 
a resolution for a day of annual mourning throughout the Union; 
as if human nature would weep at the word of command upon 
fixed days & seasons; as if there were any analogy between po- 
litical and personal sorrow. I protested that I would resist 
it if alone, and thus gained time, till returning reflection con- 
vinced the friends to the measure that it would not be advisable. 
However this day produces two orations, both of which I must 
hear, & from both of which I am willing to be excused. So my 
friends laugh at my motion to adjourn, but as it passed the house, 
it was no laughing matter. Whether they adjourn in april or 
not, Nicholas & myself have agreed to pair off between the 1st 
and 10th of that month. An event happened yesterday, which 
saves a full week at least. The Bankrupt bill passed the house 
by a majority of one yesterday without debate. 1 have not lei- 
sure now to inform you how this happened, but so it is, and it 
will undoubtedly pass the Senate. It is a great important poli- 
tical measure, — I had no idea of its succeeding. 4 

Throughout this session the air was full of rumors 
regarding the next Federalist nomination for the presi- 
dency. From the moment that John Adams delivered 
his blow to Hamilton's policy, the war Federalists de- 
cided on his fall. A letter from Theodore Sedgwick to 
Timothy Pickering, on December 22, 1799, indicates that 
Otis was already cognizant of this plan, and intended to 
thwart it: 

The representation made by Mr. [Otis] 5 that there is an oli- 
garchical faction whose head is Colo. [Pickering] that the com- 
bination was intended to controul the President and direct the 

4 The Bankruptcy Bill, which was a favorite measure of Otis, had failed at 
the last Congress. Sedgwick wrote that it was important "as well in a com- 
mercial as in a political view," since it was likely to gain Federalist voters 
among the "discontented." King, in, 189. 

6 This and other words in brackets are in Pickering's handwriting. The 
letter is in the Pickering MSS. 



INTRIGUE AND DEFEAT 183 

executive administration of the Government. That the Presi- 
dent having discovered the views of these men, has disen- 
tangled himself from their controul, and thereby incurred their 
enmity; and that to reinstate themselves again in power they 
will oppose his reelection. This is the substance of the general 
representation . 

In a mixed company, at Mr. Tilghman's Mr. [H. G. 0.] de- 
clared that at the next election, whoever might be associated 
with Mr. Adams, the electors of Massachusetts would not give 
their votes uniformly, for fear the election of Mr. Adams would, 
thereby, be endangered. This declaration which a gentleman 
has since told me he has repeated to him, as far as Mr. [H. G. 0.] 
may be deemed an authority is of the most mischievous kind, 
and, destroying all means of confidence or concert, will insure, 
with absolute certainty, the election of the man we dread, to, 
perhaps, the office of Vice President. 

Timothy Pickering was the fanatic of the Federal party. 
With him, politics and religion seemed one and the 
same thing, — a struggle between Good which must be 
defended, and Evil which must be crushed. The social 
structure of eighteenth-century New England and the 
principles of Federalism were the Good; French philo- 
sophy and Democracy the Evil. Statesmen of this type 
of mind are absolutely devoid of tolerance, and careless 
of the means they employ to gain their ends, — witness 
the career of John Calvin and Robespierre, Pickering's 
spiritual ancestor and political brother. He recognized no 
rules of the game in politics, for politics were to him some- 
thing more than a game ; and his zeal to conquer the powers 
of darkness, embodied in Jefferson, led him to unworthy 
intrigues, treasonable correspondence, and avowed dis 
unionism, without the least consciousness of his wron 
doing. The following extracts from his letter of Decem- 
ber 23, 1799, to Stephen Higginson, part of whicli we 
have already quoted, show that he was absolutely un- 
conscious of his part in the intrigues against the President. 




184 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

After repeating to his correspondent the rumors spread by 
Otis, he remarks: 

All these positions you will know to be false. You know that 
I have not the talents to lead a party; while you will allow me 
such a share of common sense as must guard me against the 
miserable ambition and folly of attempting it. Acting during 
my life without disguise, and always manifesting, I trust, the 
humility which I felt; you will not believe that I ever enter- 
tained the intention, singly or with others, to control the 
President, and to direct the executive administration of the 
Government. Neither will you believe that disappointment in 
this ambitious project of controul, has excited the enmity of 
me and of those with whom I think & act; and that we shall 
oppose the re-election of the President, in order to reinstate 
ourselves again in power. 

Then, after disclaiming Otis's imputations, Pickering 
makes a statement completely justifying them : 

I will only add, that certainly we shall all be agreed in the 
great object of securing federalists for the two first magistrates 
of the Union: that all predilections which would thwart this 
view ought to be laid aside: and if the State of the public mind 
should require a change of candidates, that Judge Ellsworth 
& General Pinckney should be the substitutes. 6 

These remarks are sufficient evidence that Otis's fears 
for the renomination of Adams had good foundation. 
Hamilton and the Essex Junto were looking about for 
any candidate to support against him. John Adams was, 
to be sure, a most uncertain quantity, and tempera- 
mentally unfitted for his high position. Though honest, 
courageous, and well-meaning, though author of a policy 
that has stood the test of time, he lacked the very essen- 
tial qualities of firmness, tact, and the ability to handle 
men. Unsteadiness of policy and violent outbursts of 
temper marked the latter part of his administration. At 

8 Pickering MSS., xn, 371-75. 



INTRIGUE AND DEFEAT 185 

the most critical periods in foreign and domestic politics 
he shirked his duty by long absences at Quincy, four days 
distant from the seat of government; and he permitted 
cabinet ministers to remain in office for a full year after 
discovering their relations with Hamilton. But to refuse 
Adams the renomination would be to court Federalist 
defeat. He was the only leader in his party possessing 
genuine popularity, and his peace policy pleased the mass 
of Federalist voters. It would be a difficult matter to 
explain to them why he should be superseded. 

In the early months of 1800 there was considerable talk 
of abandoning Adams and nominating Oliver Ellsworth 
for President, as Pickering suggested. 7 A compromise was 
effected, however, at the nominating caucus, composed of 
the Federalist members of both houses, held at Philadel- 
phia on or about May 3, 1800. It was agreed that each 
Federalist elector should vote for John Adams and Charles 
Cotesworth Pinckney, with the understanding that the 
former should be elected President. But the friends of 
Hamilton indorsed this arrangement with the mental 
reservation of electing Pinckney, if possible. 8 

Otis was not present at this nominating caucus. At the 
end of March he paired off with Nicholas, agreeably to 
his promise to Mrs. Otis, and returned to Boston. This 
early departure from Philadelphia enabled him to take 
care that the Massachusetts Federalists should secure the 
full benefit of their local majority in the presidential 

7 1896 Report of the American Historical Association, i, 824-35; King, m, 
209; Wm. G. Brown, Oliver Ellsworth, 311. An anonymous letter of March 11, 
1800, to the President (Adams MSS.) states that Hamilton, Pickering, Wol- 
cott, Dayton, Harper, Hillhouse, McHenry, Carroll, and Sedgwick, are all 
working for the election of Ellsworth. 

8 Harper to Otis, August 26, 1800, at end of this chapter; Sewall to Otis, 
December 29, 1800, at end of chap, xn; King, in, 232, 240; Steiner, McHenry, 
459-61 ; Gibbs, n, 398; Hamilton, Works, vi, 436-37, 459; Niles" Register, xxv, 
258. This caucus is confused by most authorities with the Aurora's "Jacobini- 
cal Conclave," an entirely different affair. 



186 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

election. At that period there was no uniformity among 
the states in choosing presidential electors. In some they 
were chosen by the legislature; in others on a general 
ticket by the people (the uniform practice to-day); in 
others by the people in districts, as Congressmen are 
elected. Virginia, down to the year 1800, employed the 
last method, but when the congressional returns of 1799 
made it evident that at least five districts in the state 
would choose Federalist electors, the Republican majority 
in the legislature abolished the district system and pro- 
vided for a choice by general ticket. It therefore behooved 
Federalist states to follow the same plan, in order simi- 
larly to exclude the Republican minorities within their 
borders from representation in the electoral college. In 
Massachusetts, for instance, a continuance of the tra- 
ditional district method would be sure to give Jefferson 
at least two votes. Otis and the other Federalist Con- 
gressmen from Massachusetts wrote a significant letter 
on that subject on January 31, 1800, addressed to the 
Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives 
and to the President of the Senate. After describing the 
"plan of the opposers of the General Government . . . 
to bend their power to democratize the character of the 
state legislature," and among other objects to secure an 
"antifederal" President, they remark: 

In this critical state of things we feel that it is very important 
to guard against one antifederal vote from Massachusetts; for 
one vote may turn the election. 

Whether this is to be done by choosing at large thro' the 
Committees, 9 or by choosing by the Legislature, or by uniting 
two or more districts for choosing, or in some other mode the 
wisdom of the Legislature will determine. We presume not to 

9 This is either a mistake for counties, although it would seem impossible 
for a mistake to be made in a document signed by fourteen men; or it reveals 
an extent of power in political committees hitherto unsuspected. 



INTRIGUE AND DEFEAT 187 

determine the mode, but only to suggest the danger which we 
apprehend and which we in this place, and in our present em- 
ployment, are perhaps better circumstanced to observe than 
our friends in Massachusetts can be. Excuse us for suggesting 
these ideas; our anxiety for the event of the election must be 
our apology. 10 

Legislative action was, however, postponed to the next 
General Court, to be elected in April and May. Otis did 
his best to bring out the full Federalist vote, by making 
a pungent speech in the caucus, on the evening before the 
election. The result was not reassuring to his party. It 
secured a strong majority in the General Court, but its 
candidate for governor, Caleb Strong, was elected by an 
actual majority of only one hundred. To allow the peo- 
ple to choose presidential electors by a general ticket, 
under those circumstances, would be to run the risk of 
total defeat, — as actually happened in 1804. The legis- 
lature therefore decided to appoint the electors itself. 
This was a legal procedure which was then practiced in 
five other states; but depriving, as it did, the people of 
Massachusetts of a privilege they had formerly enjoyed, 
it aroused great opposition and cost the Federalists a 
part of their waning popularity. A similar move was con- 
templated in Maryland, but the Federalists of that state 
did not dare to put it through. 11 

The month of May, 1800, was full of events important 
in their bearing on the election. The congressional nomi- 
nating caucus was held, and the Democrats captured the 
state government of New York, where the legislature 
chose electors, thus assuring the twelve votes of that 
state for Jefferson and Burr. At the same time John 
Adams came to a tardy determination to reorganize his 
Cabinet. McHenry was forced to resign on May 6, after 

10 Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc, xliii, 653, collated with original in Robbins MSS. 

11 See Harper's letters at end of this chapter. 



188 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

a stormy scene with the President. Pickering, who like- 
wise was requested to resign, refused, because he con- 
sidered that "several matters of importance" made his 
continuance necessary for the welfare of the government. 
He was then summarily expelled. Pickering disappeared 
shortly from view in the wilds of northern Pennsylvania, 
where his land was his only means of livelihood. His in- 
fluence was so missed, however, by the Federal party 
in Massachusetts, that a subscription was taken up in 
1802 to purchase enough of his land to enable him to re- 
turn to Massachusetts. This was an unfortunate act, for 
Timothy Pickering became the Calhoun of New England, 
and the evil genius of the Federal party. Otis's name is 
conspicuously absent from the list of subscribers. 

With the breaking-up of the Hamiltonian cabinet cabal, 
the adherents of Hamilton and Adams commenced open 
hostilities, in which both sides seemed entirely to disre- 
gard the fact that their divisions were Jefferson's strength. 
Neither side paid the slightest attention to the caucus 
agreement. The Hamilton group bent all its energies to 
securing the election of Pinckney. It was a miserable 
policy, for conscious as its authors were of Adams's popu- 
larity, they dared not avow their object, but sought to 
attain it by back-stairs intrigue, mainly by tampering 
with the state legislatures that chose presidential electors. 
Much reliance was placed on the expectation that the 
South Carolina legislature, although Democratic, would 
cast its vote for Pinckney and Jefferson, as in 1797. But 
Pinckney refused to lend his sanction to this shabby 
betrayal of his running-mate. 12 Hamilton made a journey 
to Boston in the month of June, apparently in order to 
persuade the leaders in the legislature to appoint electors 
who would "knife" Adams, and stirred things up on the 

12 In June. Steiner, McEenry, 459-61. 



INTRIGUE AND DEFEAT 189 

way by his imprudent speeches. 13 In vain the Federalist 
press attempted to conceal the schism. It is not surprising 
to find complaints from the leaders that "the public mind 
is puzzled and fretted. People don't know what to think, 
of measures or men; they are mad because they are in the 
dark." — "They know there is something behind the cur- 
tain, and they are angry because they are not told the 
nature and extent of the difficulty." 14 Some even among 
Hamilton's friends were disgusted. James McHenry con- 
sidered his party's conduct "tremulous, timid, feeble, 
deceptive, & cowardly. They write private letters. To 
whom? To each other. But they do . nothing to give a 
proper direction to the public mind." 15 

Otis was one of the few Federalist leaders who were not 
concerned in the intrigue against Adams. This much 
appears from his correspondence; but we look in vain 
for any indication of the steps taken by him and other 
Adams men to thwart their opponents. A rumor reached 
the South to the effect that "lukewarm Federalists and 
Adams's private friends," including Otis, Samuel Dexter, 
Judge Cushing of the Supreme Court, and Elbridge 
Gerry, were using their influence to get New England 
electors to drop Pinckney, in order to counteract the ex- 
tra votes he might obtain in South Carolina. 16 This rumor 
produced a frantic letter from Robert Goodloe Harper 
to Otis, begging him in the name of party harmony to see 
that Pinckney and Adams were voted for equally, and 
assuring him that there would be no desertion of Adams 
in the South. We can infer from Harper's next letter that 
Otis, in reply, insisted that no distinct Adams party 

13 Independent Chronicle, July 31, 1800; King, m, 275. 

14 Gibbs. ii, 394, 409. 

15 Steiner,462. 

16 John Rutledge, Jr., to Hamilton, July 17, 1800 (Steiner, 463). and 
Harper's letters to Otis at end of this chapter. 



190 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

existed, and that no intention was entertained of de- 
priving Pinckney of a full vote; but certain expressions 
of his seemed to Harper the "seeds from which such a 
party may spring." 

President Adams, on his side, threw discretion to the 
winds, and inveighed against the "British faction" and 
the Essex Junto, according to Fisher Ames, "like one pos- 
sessed." 17 The opposition press naturally did all in its 
power to fan the flames of jealousy that were consuming 
Federalism, and sedulously cultivated a belief that the 
President was seeking Democratic support. In August 
the Aurora printed a foolish letter that Adams had written 
several years before, accusing the Pinckney brothers of 
susceptibility to British influence. Hamilton then pub- 
lished a severe arraignment of Adams's character, and a 
defense of the Pinckneys and himself; the President's 
friends retorted in kind; and the campaign of 1800 closed 
with the Federal party turned into a Donnybrook Fair, the 
Republicans as amused onlookers egging it on, while Jef- 
ferson and Burr captured the presidential prizes. 

Jefferson and Burr each received 73 electoral votes, 
Adams, 65, and Pinckney, 64. The Hamiltonian man- 
oeuvres were thwarted by one Federalist elector throwing 
away his second vote, and by a second refusal of Charles 
Cotesworth Pinckney to accept the vote of South Caro- 
lina if coupled with that of Jefferson. 18 To find so striking 
an instance of loyalty and unselfishness amid the intrigues, 
lies, and petty bickerings of this campaign, is refreshing. 

Yet Adams and Pinckney were defeated by no acci- 
dental or temporary causes. The same wave that swept 
Jefferson into office, swept the Federalist majority out 
of Congress. Had Otis again aspired to be the represen- 

17 King,m,276. 

18 Rev. C. C. Pinckney, Thomas Pinckney, 156; Hamilton, Works, vi, 483. 



INTRIGUE AND DEFEAT 191 

tative of the First Middle District, he would in all prob- 
ability have been disappointed, for young Josiah Quincy, 
his successor as Federalist nominee, was decisively de- 
feated. It seems difficult at first to account for the rapid 
falling-off of the Federalists' popularity since their de- 
cisive victory in 1798. The majority in the Sixth Congress 
had not abused its power as its predecessor had in the 
months immediately following the X. Y. Z. disclosures. 
But the source of the Federalists' popularity in 1798 lay 
in the fact that they, in marked contrast to the Republi- 
cans, stood for national honor and integrity against for- 
eign insult and aggression. By 1800 the French peril had 
evaporated, 19 and with it the passions and the enthusi- 
asm of 1798. Meanwhile, the insidious suggestions of 
Jefferson and the Democratic editors, to the effect that 
no French peril had ever existed, that the whole X. Y. Z. 
affair had been concocted by the Federalists with the ob- 
ject of establishing a standing army and a despotism, — 
these rumors had spread and secured believers. The fruit- 
less and tyrannical sedition prosecutions, the arrogance 
and intolerance of triumphant Federalism, and the cost of 
a spirited foreign policy, had all sunk into the popular 
consciousness. When we consider all these factors, and 
the disgraceful bickerings and intrigues within the party 
itself, the wonder is not that Thomas Jefferson was elected 
President, but that John Adams was so close a second 
in the race. 

19 The treaty of Mortefontaine with France was signed September 30, 1800. 
Napoleon in all probability hastened its conclusion in order to influence the 
American elections, as it undoubtedly did. The very next day the secret treaty 
of San Udefonso, ceding Louisiana from Spain to France, was signed — a 
sufficient justification for a maintenance of the Federalist foreign policy. 



192 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 



LETTERS FROM ROBERT GOODLOE HARPER TO OTIS ON 
THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION 

Annapolis 20 June 25th 1800 

The Jacobins here are "erectis animis," but, as usual, on 
most insufficient grounds. Your state has struck a heavy & 
well directed blow against them. This, in all probability, will 
follow it up. In that case their defeat is certain. I have letters 
from Jersey & Delaware, which asure me that no danger is to 
be apprehended in those states. Stockton, who is one of my 
Jersey correspondents, speaks in very positive terms. 

I have yet heard very little from South Carolina. One of 
my correspondents, however, in a letter of May 26th says, on 
the subject of the Election "There is less of Pinckney than you 
would imagine. The Mass of sentiment seems to be divided 
between Adams & Jefferson." I mention this to shew you, that 
the South Carolinians will not be actuated by narrow local 
views, but enter honestly into the general system. There is no 
doubt that every federal Nerve in the state, will be erected 
in support of Mr. Adams, and that no people in the Union 
would more decidedly reject any attempt to supersede him. 
They will also support Pinckney, upon the general ground of 
giving the friends of the gov't two strings to their bow instead 
of one. . . . 

Baltimore August 28th 1800 
My dear Otis 

I fear you and your friends in Boston are ruining every 
thing. We understand here, that a party in Boston, which is 
called Mr. Adams's Party and led by Messrs Dexter Otis Knox 
Cushing Jackson 21 & Gerry, is making the utmost exertion to 
get the vote of that state thrown away from Genl Pinckney, in 

20 Harper moved permanently to Baltimore in 1799, but continued to 
represent the Ninety-six District of South Carolina until the close of the 
Sixth Congress. 

21 Samuel Dexter, the Secretary of War; Major-General Henry Knox; 
Judge William Cushing, of the Supreme Court; Charles Jackson, a Boston 
lawyer. 



INTRIGUE AND DEFEAT 193 

order to favour, exclusively, the election of Mr. Adams. Dexter 
Otis Knox & — Gerry, in the same line. Creditisne Pisones ! 
This idea does unconscionable mischief. The federalists here, 
& in South Carolina, are making the fairest & the most zealous 
exertions in favour of Mr. Adams. They wish to secure the elec- 
tion to him if possible, but knowing that to be doubtful, they 
think themselves obliged, by every principle of duty to their 
cause & their Country, to support Genl Pinckney at the same 
time, in order to avail themselves of his popularity in the south- 
ern states, should their other hope fail. But can it be expected 
that they will continue the same efforts, if they know that this 
hope also is to be taken from them, through the exclusive at- 
tachment of Mr. Adams's friends in Massachusetts, to his in- 
terests? They cannot be expected to do it. They will not do 
it. I know they will not. Reflect on the consequences of an 
abatement in their exertions. 

Do you calculate on the certainty of Mr. Adams's Success, 
so as to justify men attached to the federal cause, in dividing 
the other vote? We understand that you do. For God's sake 
review the calculation & consider it well. Suffer not yourselves 
to be misled by the warmth of your wishes. On what, I pray 
you, does that calculation rest? Can you make it more favour- 
able than the one contained in the enclosed paper? From that 
you will find, and I believe it may be depended on, that Mr. 
Adams cannot be elected without either getting two votes at 
least from South Carolina, or seven from North Carolina instead 
of five, or nine from Maryland instead of seven. 

That he will get a vote in South Carolina is extremely doubt- 
ful. The most zealous exertions are making, and unless dampt 
by you, will continue to be made, in his favour by the federalists 
there, but their success is extremely uncertain. This is the uni- 
form tenour of all my letters from them, several of which are 
very late. The mode of choice by the legislature occasions this 
extreme uncertainty, by exposing the choice to the influence 
of a few artful jacobins, who will attend the Legislature, and 
may mislead the uninformed though well-meaning men of whom 
it is composed; although they could produce little or no effect 
on the people at large. 

As to North Carolina, nothing that I have seen or heard, 
warrants a reliance on more than five votes in that state. More 



194 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

are hoped for by the federal men there, but not counted on. My 
information is from Grove with whom I correspond, & from 
Judge Moore 22 of that state, whom I have very lately seen. In 
those districts whereon we count, there is division & opposition, 
and the event, of course, like that of all other popular contests, 
is more or less uncertain. 

To come now to Maryland, there is every thing short of 
moral certainty, that should district elections continue, Mr. 
Jefferson will get three votes. There is much probability of his 
getting four. The federalists are labouring to change the mode 
to a Legislative choice, and there are good hopes of their suc- 
cess. But it is very far from being certain. This measure is now 
the point of contest in a popular election. The mass of the people 
is well disposed, at least a very great majority, but they are 
inconveably [sic] attached to what they call the privilege of 
voting for the electors in districts. An immense clamour is 
raised by the antifederalists about what they denominate the 
attempt to deprive the people of their privileges. It produces 
an effect which I did not foresee. Even three weeks ago, I did 
not foresee it. There was much difficulty in persuading the 
federalists to venture on the ground. When they first took it, 
the public mind appeared to acquiesce in the plan. Now there 
are strong appearances of its taking a different turn. So much 
is said to the people about the privilege of voting, and they ex- 
press so blind an attachment to it, that I much doubt, very 
much indeed, whether they will be persuaded to elect any men 
into the Legislature, but such as will pledge themselves not to 
vote for depriving them of this privilege. 23 

This opinion is the result of very recent information from 
several counties of the state, and of conversations with several 
leading and well-informed federal candidates. I still have hopes 
of succeeding. Until lately I was very confident. At present I 

greatly doubt. 

I beseach you, my dear Otis, to weigh these circumstances and 
to test your estimates by these facts. I declare to you in truth 

' 22 William Barry Grove and Alfred Moore. 

23 Cf. next letter; Harper to Dayton, July 2, 1800, in Bulletin of the New York 
Public Library, iv, 115; Harper's pamphlet entitled Bystander, or a Series of 
Letters on the Subject of the Legislative choice of Electors in Maryland, Baltimore, 
1800; and K. M. Rowland, Charles Carroll of Carrolllon, n, 234. 



INTRIGUE AND DEFEAT 195 

and sincerity, that I am labouring with all my might to pro- 
mote the election of Mr. Adams. I further declare that had I 
not, from the moment of the New York election, considered it 
doubtful in the extreme, I never would have countenanced, much 
less have proposed, the scheme of bringing forward Genl. Pinck- 
ney & making him pari passu. This declaration I made, in the 
most pointed terms, at that meeting, 24 the objects of which are 
supposed by some to have been so much misunderstood by Mr. 
Adams. I know this to be the sentiment throughout my own 
state, this state, and North Carolina. At the same time, I de- 
clare, with equal frankness, that I prefer Genl. Pinckney to Mr. 
Adams; not from personal motives, for I am personally on ill- 
terms with Genl. Pinckney & always have been, while I have 
every reason to be satisfied, & even pleased, with the Conduct 
of Mr. Adams towards myself; but because I think the former, 
in my Conscience, better qualified to conduct the government. 
This, however, is a private sentiment, which I do not surfer to 
influence my conduct. I support Mr. Adams as well as Genl. 
Pinckney, to the utmost of my power & means, because I think 
that the good of the common cause requires it, and that the 
cause ought to be preferred to the individual. I know very 
many federalists, men too of high name & influence, who feel 
as I do on this subject. They also act in the same manner. 
They sacrifice their particular preference to a general prin- 
ciple. 25 

But, let me repeat it again, unless they find a similar disposi- 
tion in the particular friends of Mr. Adams, they will cease 
thus to act. They know the success, at least, to be uncertain. 
They know that of Mr. Adams to be much more so. They 
therefore wish to encrease the chance, by joining Genl. Pinck- 
ney in the federal ticket. But if they find that this source of 
hope is to be cut off, & every thing exposed to the greatest haz- 
ard, through exclusive attachment, in some, to Mr. Adams; in 
short that the man is to be preferred to the cause; it is difficult 

24 The nominating caucus, in Philadelphia. 

25 McHenry writes Wolcott, July 22, " Mr. Harper is very clearly of opinion 
that General Pinckney ought to be preferred." Gibbs, n, 385. Cabot said in a 
letter to Hamilton, August 21, "Mr. Harper writes from Baltimore on the 11th 
inst, that our friends may now count with some certainty, indeed very great, 
certainty, on an unanimous vote for Mr. Pinckney in Maryland." Hamilton, 
Works, vi, 459. 



196 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

to foresee to what extent they may be disgusted, and their 
exertions abated by such a discovery. 

This, let me add, is the last hope of the Jacobins. They ex- 
ultingly declare, that Mr. Adams' friends will drop Pinckney; 
that a division, or at least a coldness, will thus be produced; 
that a division of the federal strength will thus take place; and 
that the result will be the election of Mr. Jefferson. They work 
against Adams with all their might; & have little doubt of de- 
feating him. At the same time they endeavour to work on the 
friends of Mr. Adams to defeat Pinckney likewise; thus to get 
clear of both. 

We learn here that Mr. Adams has declared his willingness 
to be joined in the same ticket with Mr. Jefferson, but we can- 
not believe it. If we could, it certainly would not encrease our 
respect for his heart or his understanding. It is made use of, 
by the friends of Mr. Jefferson, as an argument in his favour, 
against Mr. Adams himself. 

Lay these things, my dear Otis, seriously to heart. I write 
them through a strong conviction of their importance; utterly 
uncertain how they may be received. Let your friends weigh 
them; some of whom I have the happiness of calling my friends 
also, & hope that they consider me in the same light. We are 
in no common times, nor threatened by a danger of ordinary 
magnitude. Our situation admits of no experiments, no haz- 
zards on the mere calculation of Chances; no sporting with any 
part of our means. Depend upon it, the fair full & united ex- 
ertion of them all, is imperiously called for by our situation. 
Should we suffer particular views, personal attachments, or 
sanguine estimates of the strength of particular candidates, 
to produce a division of our force, we shall lose an opportunity 
perhaps never to be regained; & may live to see our country 
mourn, in blood & ashes, over the consequences of our mistaken 
policy. 

God bless you my dear Otis. Remember me, & believe me 

with sincere affection 

your friend & Hbl Servt 

Rob: G: Harper 



INTRIGUE AND DEFEAT 197 

Sept 3d 

Yesterday I received a letter frcrn Grove, dated August 
24th. He says that we are certain of five in that state & have 
hopes of seven. He & your friend Hill 26 are re-elected, the 
former by a vast majority. 

R. G. H. 

Baltimore Octr. 10th 1800 
My dear Otis 

You have in a very great degree quieted my alarms, but not 
entirely removed my apprehensions. For though you assure 
me that no such party as I spoke of, has been actually formed, 
& that the views of certain gentlemen whom I highly respect, 
do not extend as far as I had been taught to believe; yet, with 
the most perfect reliance on your candour and sincerity, which 
I trust you need not be assured by me that I feel, I cannot but 
discern, in some expressions of your letter, the seeds from which 
such a party may spring, and certain openings to the most dan- 
gerous extent of those exclusive views, which I so greatly dep- 
recate. 

Why, for instance, do you speak of Mr. Pinckney as the Com- 
petitor of Mr. Adams? I solemnly assure you that I have never 
heard him so spoken of by those who proposed the policy of 
bringing him forward. 27 They intend him, solely, as a prudent 
mariner does a spare yard, which he wishes to have on board, 
lest that on which he places his chief reliance should fail him in 
a storm. In this light I know he is viewed here & every where 
to the Southward, including South Carolina. Is it without cause 
that I dread the operation of those feelings which lead us to 
consider and represent him in the light of a Competitor. 

Neither is it by any means certain that Mr. Pinckney or Mr. 
Jefferson must be president in case Massachusetts should vote 
for the former; for recent accounts from South Carolina, give 
me very strong reason to believe, that all the votes of that state 
will be for Mr. Adams, as well as for Mr. Pinckney. The general 
dispositions of the people are most strong in favour of Mr. 

26 William H. Hill of North Carolina. 

27 This statement is hard to believe. Harper was in communication with 
Cabot and McKenry, both of whom considered Pinckney very much the com- 
petitor of Adams, and he must have talked with other Hamiltonians in Phila- 
delphia who held the same views. 



198 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

Adams; so much so that my correspondents assure me, that if 
the people individually were to vote for President, he would 
have at least four fifths of the votes. I know that every nerve 
of the federal interest in that state, including all the friends 
& connections of the Pinckneys, and the Pinckneys themselves, 
(the letter to Tenche Coxe notwithstanding,) will be strained 
to produce a corresponding result in the Legislature. Those who 
suspect otherwise, do not form a just estimate of the magna- 
nimity and greatness of mind which characterize those two 
men & their principal friends. 

As to this state, I entertain some better hopes than I did 
when I wrote to you last. Since that time I have attended one 
of the supreme courts, & passed through several of the counties. 
I have seen, or heard from, our friends in most of them. The 
result is a much stronger reliance than I lately had, on the adop- 
tion of the Legislative Choice. But it is still far from being cer- 
tain. The election takes place next Monday, yesterday week. 
After the result of that is known, we shall be able to form a more 
decided opinion. 

Upon the whole, my dear friend, I shall still hope for the best, 
and exert all my little strength in promoting the good cause. 
I shall moreover rely confidently on your assurance, that you 
will adopt that policy on which, in my judgment, our safety de- 
pends, "as soon as you shall" be well satisfied that the election 
will otherwise be put in jeopardy. I cannot, however, but feel 
some very unpleasant forebodings, when I recollect that you 
are yet to be satisfied of a fact, the evidence of which, to my 
mind, seems so compleat. 

God bless you & keep you, is the prayer of your affectionate 

friend 

Rob: G: Harper 



CHAPTER XII 

JEFFERSON OR BURR? 
1800-1801, jst 35 

Otis's last session in Congress as a Representative 
from Massachusetts began on November 30, 1800, after 
the popular verdict on his party's performances had been 
given. The Federal government was now permanently 
removed to Washington. No room could be found in the 
half-finished Capitol for the House of Representatives, 
which was therefore relegated to a temporary brick build- 
ing, disrespectfully known as the "Oven," attached 
to the south wing. It was kept from falling in on the as- 
sembled Congressmen only by strong temporary shorings. 

The third session of the Sixth Congress is of peculiar 
interest not only for the election of the President by the 
House, but for the curious spectacle of the Federalists 
maintaining and even extending their system, in spite of 
the rebuke administered to it in the recent elections. 
Nowadays, a due regard for public opinion prevents a de- 
feated party from abusing that strange provision in our 
Constitution which permits a Congress to sit for half a 
year subsequent to the election of its successor. But the 
Federal party always marched straight forward, without 
paying much attention to the vox populi, which it deemed 
a very different thing from the vox dei. "We shall profit 
of our short-lived majority," writes John Rutledge, Jr., 
"and do as [much good as we can before the end of this 
session." 1 

1 Hamilton, Works, vn, 511. 



200 HARRISON GRAY ^OTIS 

The President in his opening address advised Congress 
to maintain the navy that he had done so much to create. 
This advice was not needed by Federalists, and not heeded 
by their Republican successors. Congress also maintained 
the army in statu quo. Otis in a long speech expressed his 
surprise and disapproval of the semi-annual Democratic 
proposal to reduce it; he also "hoped his friends would 
do nothing that might be construed into a death-bed re- 
pentance of a conduct that constituted their glory and 
their pride." 

The attempt this session to renew the odious Sedition 
Act is the most striking instance of the unteachableness of 
Federalism. Otis, in a letter to his wife of January 24, 
1801, gives a little inside history of this episode: 

We have had a very animated though unexpected debate 
upon the old story of the sedition bill. The resolution to con- 
tinue the law was introduced by the Chairman of a Committee 
who does not often address the house, a Mr Piatt. The inten- 
tion was to take the question without debate, expecting to lose 
it, when some Anti, to puzzle Piatt called on him to give his 
reasons for renewing the law. For this fortunately he was 
prepared and spake like a man of sense and a gentleman. The 
gauntlet being thrown, a general engagement ensued which 
lasted three days, and in which of course I was compelled to 
take a part. We however carried the question by a majority 
of one. The bill nevertheless I fear will finally be lost. 

Otis's letter seems to indicate that the measure was not 
intended to be carried, but only to be brought forward 
on principle, and that the whole party defended it, in 
order to avoid the imputation of a "death-bed repent- 
ance." It is hard to conceive what other objects they could 
have had in view, for the Sedition Act, if enforced after 
March 4, 1801, would have turned the tables on Federalist 
scribblers. The measure was finally defeated, although it 
received five more votes than the original Sedition Act. 



JEFFERSON OR BURR? 201 

In January, 1801, Otis was appointed chairman of a 
committee to report on the condition of the Treasury. 
This was no easy task, since no examination had been 
made for some years; and was therefore extremely im- 
portant to the party in view of gross charges of extrava- 
gance and peculation preferred against Pickering and 
Wolcott by the scurrilous Philadelphia Aurora. In the 
course of the investigation there broke out at the Treas- 
ury building a fire, which, according to the Aurora, was 
set by Oliver Wolcott himself to cover his misdeeds. Otis 
wrote regarding this matter on January 29 : 

The infamous suggestions to the disadvantage of Wolcot, 
ought to be punished with any thing but death. They are atro- 
cious and as unfounded as the pretensions of the authors to 
honor and veracity. Wolcot had done with the office and left 
it. The examination of the state of the Treasury had been 
compleated, and in fact no papers are burnt of any consequence 
except those of Mr Francis and Mr Whelen, in the destruction 
of which it is palpable Wolcot could have no interest. 

The report of our Committee is highly honorable to the 
Secretary and was unanimous, Nicholas, Nicholson & Stone, 2 
being three of the Committee. This will set all matters 
right. 

By far the most interesting piece of legislation during 
this session was the Judiciary Act, extending and strength- 
ening the federal judiciary. Although of no practical re- 
sult, because it was shortly afterwards repealed by a Re- 
publican Congress, the act must be looked upon as the 
last word of the Federalist system. We no longer need 
vindicate its authors from the charge of passing it simply 
to create life offices for worthy Federalists. 3 But what their 
motives actually were has not yet been made clear. Over 

2 John Nicholas of Virginia, Joseph H. Nicholson of Maryland, and David 
Stone of North Carolina, all Democrats. 

» Max Farrand: "The Judiciary Act of 1801," in Amer. Eisl. Rev., v, 682. 



202 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

a year previous to the presidential election, certain lead- 
ers of the party, perceiving that the federal judiciary was 
the strong arm of the Federalist system, and the only 
barrier to state interference, proposed its extension. 
As Fisher Ames expressed the idea, "The steady men in 
Congress will attempt to extend the judicial department. 
. . . There is no way to combat the state opposition but 
by an efficient and extended organization of judges, 
magistrates, and civil officers." 4 In this branch of the 
government the Federalists hoped to preserve their car- 
dinal principle, federal supremacy over the states, against 
the decentralizing doctrines of Jeffersonian Democracy; 
and they succeeded. 

Otis took very little part in the debate on the Judici- 
ary Bill, which increased the number of judicial districts 
from seventeen to twenty-two, and created a new series 
of circuit courts. This establishment was unnecessarily 
large for the needs of the country, and conservation of 
Federalist principles was assured by the appointment 
of John Marshall as chief justice, not by any extension of 
the system. J As soon as the bill was reported, Otis's mail 
was flooded with applications for the new circuit judge- 
ships. His former patron, Judge Lowell, wished one. 
George Richards Minot, known as "The American Sall- 
ust" for his history of Shays's Rebellion, modestly pro- 
posed to receive the district judgeship left vacant by 
Lowell, to retain his present office of Judge of Probate, 
and to " devote any leisure he might have, to literary 
pursuits particularly in the line of History." — "Such 
laudable and liberal views seem to merit encourage- 
ment," adds his recommender. Otis himself was as- 
piring to the position of Solicitor-General of Massa- 
chusetts, a place which went to another, on account of 

* December 29, 1799, Gibbs, n, 316. Cf. King, m. 147. 



JEFFERSON OR BURR? 203 

geographical considerations. On February 18 he writes 
Mrs. Otis: 

The President has this day nomminated me to be attorney 
for the United States in the district of Massachusetts. This is 
the same place which was offered to me by Genl Washington 
and declined for the honor of coming to Congress. It is analo- 
gous to the offices of Attorney & Solicitor General, but more 
eligible for me as I shall be stationary in Boston. One circum- 
stance against it is I shall hold it during the Pleasure of the 
President, and though his friends say he will not change any 
officers but the heads of departments, yet I presume in the course 
of a twelvemonth he will oust them all. 

As Otis predicted, his tenure of office was short, for 
Jefferson, considering it no doubt a " midnight appoint- 
ment," removed him before the year was out. 5 

The most important duty of the House of Representa- 
tives in the Sixth Congress was to choose a President. 
Owing to the smooth working of the Republican machine, 
and the clumsy method of electoral voting then pre- 
scribed, Jefferson and Burr were tied for the presidency 
with 73 votes each. According to the Constitution, the 
duty of choosing between them fell on the House of 

5 Samuel A. Otis wrote Jefferson, March 11, 1801: "Your goodness will 
excuse my taking this opportunity to mention my son Harrison Gray Otis, 
atty. for the Massachusetts district; reinstated in the office by Mr. Adams to 
which he was originally appointed by Gen. Washington. He resigned the office 
on being elected to Congress and sacrificed a business that would have yielded 
him 20000 dollars. With a large and increasing family it became imprudent for 
him longer to continue in Congress. ... On retiring Mr. Adams reinstated him 
in his former office, become vacant by Mr. Davis' promotion; and in which 
should you be pleased to continue him, I am confident he will discharge his 
duties with honor & fidelity, in doing which you will oblige an affectionate 
father." Jefferson MSS., 2d ser., lxiv, 16. Naturally this reasoning did not 
appeal to Jefferson. Samuel Otis, however, retained his post as Secretary of 
the Senate. The only movement against him came from the Hamiltonians, 
who tried to persuade him to resign on the ground that the Republicans would 
aurely supersede him. His estimate of H. G. Otis's probable income was greatly 
exaggerated; ten thousand a year was the highest possible income to be got 
from the law in 1800. F. Ames, Works, i, 301. 



201 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

Representatives, the members voting by states, each state 
having one vote, and a majority of votes being necessary 
for a choice. 

This exigency had been contemplated by the Federal- 
ists since August, and by January the party was almost 
unanimous in the decision to use all its strength in the 
House to promote the election of Aaron Burr over 
Thomas Jefferson. So great was their dread and detes- 
tation of the leader of the Republican party that Aaron 
Burr seemed by far the lesser evil to those ignorant of 
his true character. 6 Many, even, who knew the unprin- 
cipled nature of the man, favored his election from the 
unworthy motives of spite, and the expectation that 
Burr could be kept "right" by corruption. For much 
the same reason, great business concerns of to-day 
prefer an easy-going grafter in power to an upright rad- 
ical who threatens their interests. Among those who 
shared these opinions were a judge of the Supreme Court 
of Massachusetts, 7 and Harrison Gray Otis, who wrote 
Hamilton, December 17, 1800: 

Dear Sir: 

There exists the strongest probability that the electoral votes 
are equally divided between Messrs. Jefferson and Burr. We 
have certain advices from South Carolina and Georgia, and 
wait only for intelligence from Kentucky and Tennessee to 
ascertain the fact. The gentlemen of the opposition are of the 
opinion that this will be the case. The question now is, in what 
mode shall the friends of the federal government take advan- 
tage of this casualty? Can any terms be obtained from Mr. Burr 
favorable to the true interest of the country, and is he a man 
who will adhere to terms when stipulated? Is it advisable to 
attempt a negotiation with him — and in what manner and 

6 See Theophilus Parsons's letter, at end of this chapter. The sentiments of 
almost every Federalist leader are recorded in Hamilton's Works, vi, 486 
et scq. 

7 See Sewall's letter at end of this chapter. 



JEFFERSON OR BURR? 205 

through what channel shall it be conducted? We are inclined to 
believe that some advantage may be derived from it, but 
few of us have a personal acquaintance with Mr. Burr. It 
is palpable that to elect him would be to cover the opposition 
with chagrin, and to sow among them the seeds of a morbid 
division. But whether in any event he would act with the 
friends to the Constitution, or endeavor to redeem himself with 
his own party by the violence of his measures and the over- 
throw of the Constitution, is a doubt which you may assist us to 
resolve. Your local situation and personal acquaintance with 
these men and the state of parties, enables you to give an opinion 
upon a subject in which all the friends to the country have a 
common interest, and if you can venture to repose your confi- 
dence in me, I will most solemnly pledge myself that your senti- 
ments shall be reserved within my own breast, or communicated 
only to those whom you may designate. Should our expecta- 
tion be realized, which we shall know in a day or two, is it ad- 
visable to send a messenger to New- York to confer with friends 
there, or attempt to bring Mr. Burr here? What should be the 
outlines of an agreement with him, and (alas! it is a difficult 
question,) what security can be devised for his adherence to it? 

I am anxious to act correctly and judiciously. It would be 
distressing to omit or misdirect an effort which might be bene- 
ficial to the country, or preserve the Constitution, and I pre- 
sume that honor and duty will sanction every endeavor to 
preserve it, even by an ineligible instrument. The treaty is 8 be- 
fore the Senate, and I believe will be found another chapter in 
the book of humiliation. 

All claims for spoliation, it is said, are suspended during the 
war, all public ships captured by each party are to be surren- 
dered, and in the language of the case of Bullum v. Boatum, 
after paying all costs we are permitted to begin again de novo. 
It is very doubtful in my mind whether the Senate will ratify. 9 

Hamilton's clear view penetrated this sophistry. By 
bitter experience he knew, through and through, the 
character of the man by whose hand he was destined to 
die. He perceived the lasting disgrace that his party 

8 The treaty of Mortefontaine, with France. 

9 Hamilton, Works, vi, 490. 



206 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

would incur by elevating such a man to the presidency. 
But his wise counsel was not heeded. Just before the elec- 
tion in the House, the Federalist caucus decided to sup- 
port Burr; only four members, not including Otis, opposed 
the decision. 10 It was decided to commence balloting on 
February 11, immediately after the formal count of the 
electoral vote, and to continue without adjournment until 
a decision was reached. 

Otis's correspondence throws no new light on the ques- 
tion of Aaron Burr*s attitude toward this movement in 
his behalf, or of whether a bargain was actually concluded 
between him and the Federalists, as Otis had suggested 
in his letter to Hamilton. But it gives a conclusive answer 
to the charge made at the time, and since frequently 
repeated, that the Federalist Congressmen intended to 
prevent an election, and to usurp the government by 
legislative act, if they could not elect Burr. Rumors to 
that effect were current at the time, and were deemed suf- 
ficiently serious by the Republican leaders to warrant 
plans for a counter-stroke, by force of arms if necessary. 11 
There is no doubt that certain hot-heads in the party did 
justify these apprehensions. Judge Sewall, for instance, 
wrote Otis, "it is possible that an election at this time . . . 
may be wholly prevented. This is most desirable." But 
the Federalist congressmen concerned always denied that 

10 [R. H. and J. A. Bayard, eds.] Documents Relating to the Presidential 
Election in the Year 1801, Philadelphia, 1831, p. 5. This pamphlet (brought 
out by James A. Bayard's sons, on account of aspersions on the memory of 
their father in Jefferson's Anas being read in the debate on Foot's Resolution), 
contains the depositions of James A. Bayard relating to the election in the 
cases of Burr v. Cheetham in 1806, and Gillespie v. Smith; depositions of 
Samuel Smith in the same case; and letters from two surviving Congressmen 
who took part in the election. 

11 H. Adams, Gallatin, 248, 254-63. These stories did not, in general, reach 
the newspapers, but they were circulated on hand-bills (Independent Chronicle, 
March 2, 1801) throughout the country. Cf. Nathaniel Ames's diary, in A. B. 
Hart, Contemporaries, in, 339. 



JEFFERSON OR BURR? 207 

such a project was ever entertained by them. 12 Otis's 
contemporary letters to his wife, his confidante in politi- 
cal matters, mention no such scheme, and indicate that 
he expected the election to terminate in the regular way. 
The following extracts include all that he wrote her re- 
garding the election. 
j February 4, 1801 : 

; We are preparing for the 11th of february. I can form no 
conjecture as to the result that is worthy of being communi- 
cated. It is probable we shall have no choice the first time of 
balloting and if the Federalists are all firm, we shall carry our 

point. 

Congress Hall, Monday Feby 9, 1801 

. . . We are at this instant debating the rules of proceed- 
ing at the approaching election. They are enclosed for Harri- 
son's perusal, and / presume will be adopted in their present 
form. In this event you see we are to be shut up for God knows 
how long, though it cannot be longer than the third of march. 
Our Committee Room must be garnished with beefsteaks, and 
a few Turkey Carpets to lie upon would not be amiss. 

I do not believe however the obstinacy of parties will endure 
beyond the second day, but I cannot say who will give way. 
We shall however have the use of pen ink and paper which is 
more than all prisoners enjoy & which I shall improve. 

On February 11, the official count of electoral votes 
was made, and the tie between Jefferson and Burr offi- 
cially announced. Immediately afterwards, balloting com- 
menced in the House, and that afternoon Otis wrote: 

We are in Conclave and in a Snow Storm. The votes have 
been counted in Senate & no choice. We have balloted in the 
house seven times. Thus it stands — 

12 See their depositions, in Documents Relating to the Election. A contempo- 
rary letter of James A. Bayard was published in 1822 (printed in W. E. Dodd, 
Nath. Macon, 164), stating that the New England members expressed a de- 
termination during the election to risk civil war rather than permit Jefferson 
to be chosen. R. G. Harper then declared (Washington Gazette, January 16, 
1823, and other leading newspapers) that he had never heard of such a plan. 



208 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

For Jefferson 8 \ 

For Burr 6 > States 

Divided 2 ) 

We have agreed not to adjourn, but we have suspended ballot- 
ing for one hour to eat a mouthful. Perhaps we shall continue 
here a week. No conjecture can be formed how it will termi- 
nate, but if we are true to ourselves we shall prevail. Poor Nich- 
olson is in the Committee Room abed with a fever. It is a chance 
that this kills him. I would not thus expose myself for any 
President on Earth, but being in good health & spirits, ... I 
have no objection to staying here all night. 

I am one of the Tellers and so constantly employed that I 
cannot write to you at large. 

February 15: 

The last week has fled rapidly, in spite of the disagreeable and 
still unfinished business in which we have been engaged, and 
my heart beats higher and my impatience increases as the day 
of my departure approaches. If the election should be made, 
of which I believe there is little doubt, in a day or two, I shall 
probably be off by the 1st of march at the farthest. I shall wait 
only for two bills to be passed, the one making the annual ap- 
propriation for the support of Government and the other rela- 
tive to the navy and leave them to wind off the end of the skain. 
Yes my beloved angel, with you I shall retire from this scene 
of anxiety and bustle, to enjoy the rational and I hope per- 
manent comforts which we have the means of commanding, & 
remain a silent spectator of the follies and confusion, of the 
strife and licentiousness incident to all popular governments, 
and to ours in a most eminent degree. 

These letters certainly do not suggest that Otis was 
conspiring to prolong the choice over March 3, and 
place a Federalist usurper in the presidential chair. 

On the following day, February 16, Bayard decided 
that no more votes could possibly be secured for Burr. 
He and a few others, who saw no use in continuing the 
struggle further, decided to obtain what they could from 



JEFFERSON OR BURR? 209 

Jefferson before bowing to the inevitable. Samuel Smith 
of Baltimore was told that Jefferson could be elected if 
he gave satisfactory assurances in regard to the public 
debt and the navy, the abolition of which he was supposed 
to desire, and the non-removal of government officials. 
Smith told Bayard that Jefferson had already authorized 
him to make the statement that he "considered the pros- 
perity of our commerce as essential to the interests of the 
nation," and that the navy should be increased "in pro- 
gress with the increase of the nation." In regard to the 
civil service Smith had a special interview with Jeffer- 
son, and brought back word that he "did not think that 
such officers as the collectors of the port at Philadelphia 
and Wilmington [who had been mentioned as examples] 
ought to be discussed on political grounds only, except in 
cases where they had made improper use of their offices, to 
force the officers under them to vote contrary to their 
judgment." These assurances — the last two of which 
Jefferson did not adhere to — having been given, 13 Bay- 
ard announced them to the Federal caucus on the morn- 
ing of February 17, after the thirty-fifth ballot had also 
resulted in a tie. Jefferson's assurance satisfied enough 
Federalists to break the deadlock. On the next ballot 
Bayard, to whom the credit for this happy issue is chiefly 
due, handed in a blank. Morris of Vermont and the Mary- 
land Federalists followed the same plan, thus allowing 
their Republican colleagues to cast the vote of their states ; 
and Thomas Jefferson was elected President of the United 
States by a majority of two. 

13 These facts were stated under oath by Bayard and Smith in the Cheet- 
ham case {Documents Relating to the Election, 11-12), testified to as correct by 
other Federalists, and evidently believed in by Gallatin (H. Adams, Gallatin, 
250). Jefferson in his Anas (Works, ix, 209-11) brands them "as absolutely 
false." The weight of evidence is against him. Cf. J. Q. Adams, Memoirs, 
i, 428. 



210 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

The peaceful revolution of the new century was com- 
pleted; the "sun of Federalism had set." Within a short 
time Otis and his Federalist colleagues had left Washing- 
ton, never to return as part of a triumphant majority. 

The Fourth of March, 1801, ends an epoch in Otis's life, 
as in that of his party; it marks the suspension of his 
career, at the age of thirty-five, as a national statesman. 
The successful lawyer, orator, and man of business had 
quickly ripened into a legislator. He had turned out a 
typical Federalist, representing his party at its best and 
at its worst: on the one hand, its lofty nationalism and 
creative genius, on the other, its narrow intolerance 
and distrust of the people. His brilliant oratory and tal- 
ent for leadership had aided the carrying-out of a policy 
of spirited resistance to European aggression and insult, 
that brought France to terms while it kept intact Wash- 
ington's standard of Isolation. He had done his best to 
prevent the fatal rupture in his party. On the other side, 
Otis must take a full share of responsibility for the hys- 
teria and intolerance of 1798, and for that final act of 
the Federalist regime, the attempt to make Aaron Burr 
President of the United States. On the whole, we are 
forced to the conclusion that it was well for the country 
that the rule of Otis and his colleagues ended in 1801. 
Their foreign policy was a conspicuous success, and a re- 
freshing contrast to the half-measures and experiments 
of the Jeffersonian epoch. But their follies and errors in 
this period were many, and they were not accidents, but 
inevitable results of the party's fundamental defect, a 
defect that could not be shaken off while Hamilton, Cabot, 
Ames, and Pickering were influential in its councils: they 
arose from the failure of the Federalists to respect the 
ideals, the jealousies, and the prejudices of a free people. 
This fundamental weakness must not blind us, however, 



JEFFERSON OR BURR? 211 

to the fact that the Federal party laid down principles of 
government by which the Union has been preserved, by 
which these United States must be governed while they 
wish to remain one nation. To quote a contemporary 
prophecy of Robert Goodloe Harper: 

Names may change; the denominations of parties may be 
altered or forgotten; but the principles on which the federalists 
have acted must be adopted, their plans must be substantially 
pursued, or the government must fall in pieces; for those narrow 
maxims which apply properly to small communities, and on 
which speculative men sometimes found their theories, will 
ever prove in practice wholly inadequate to the government 
of a great nation. 14 

LETTERS 

SAMUEL SEWALL 15 TO OTIS 

Marblehead, 29th Deer. 1800 
My dear Sir, 

I am pleased that Mr. Hooper succeeds at length in his pe- 
tition : I observe by the paper that the House have accepted the 
report of the Com[mitt]ee. 

The issue of the election of President is extremely unfortu- 
nate : the only consolation is that the federal party acted with so 
much unanimity notwithstanding the mistaken efforts of Mr. 
A's most solicitous friends. He must be satisfied that he was 
not forsaken or sacrificed by the party, and that, if he has not 
succeeded, it is only to be attributed to the too frequent vibra- 
tion of popular elections. So. Carolina did precisely as last May 
and until the meeting of the Electors, I expected they would 
do. But at our meeting l6 we had so direct intelligence of the 

14 Harper's Select Works, 326. 

15 Samuel Sewall (1757-1814); a member of the Sixth Congress from the 
Salem district, who resigned before the second session on account of a promo- 
tion to the Supreme Bench in Massachusetts. 

16 He probably refers to the congressional caucus that nominated Adams 
and Pinckney. 



212 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

state of their new legislature and such strong assurances of the 
intentions of the federal party there, as to excite with me 
the most sanguine hopes of an issue to the election entirely 
to the wishes of the federal party. I lament the change; but 
according to present appearances the federal party here are to 
gain strength from it. All the light troops of the opposition are 
disappointed and offended; it was not their intention to loose 
Mr Adams from the chair. We have heard of the votes from all 
the states excepting Kentucky & Tennessee: and there seems to 
be no doubt but these will be uniform with the other antifed. 
states: The two highest candid, will be Jeff. & Burr, & they will 
have an equal number of votes. What will be the conduct of 
the federal party in the house? A sentiment on this subject has 
become very general here, which I see had been anticipated 
in the Washington Federalist, — it is, that Burr must be voted 
for by the federalists as being the least of two evils. I think 
Burr's objectionable qualities will be more dangerous in the 
station of V. P. than as chief. He will govern without the re- 
sponsibility which might check his proceedings: and he will 
intrigue as from a secret but a very advantageous position. On 
the other hand as chief, if he has less principle and politl. in- 
tegrity than the other, as some suppose, yet he has less enthu- 
siasm & philosophy, and is wholly free, I am told, from the 
nonsense of democratic plans, in which the friends of Mr. Jeff, 
if not himself, are completely involved. Another purpose may 
be effected by a steady and decided vote of the federal party 
for Mr. Burr : it is possible that an election at this time and with 
the materials you will be confined to, may be wholly prevented. 
This is most desirable: and this will be the event unless some one 
of the Jacob, states concurs with the feds. If the Feds, make 
Mr B. presid., they may retain a necessary influence upon the 
Admin, and the election itself will divide their adversaries. 
Perhaps I am reckoning, with great solicitude upon suppositions 
that are not to be realized : and at any rate I shall suggest no- 
thing that can be new to you; but you must indulge a little to 
the desire of talking upon this interesting subject. . . . 
With sincere respect & esteem Your most obedt. serv. 

Samuel Sewall. 



JEFFERSON OR BURR? 213 

THEOPHILTJS PARSONS TO OTIS 

Boston Jany. 23d, 1801 
Dear Sir — 

I am much obliged to you for your polite attention to me on 
the subject of the Judicial department. I do not think the 
duties would be severe or troublesome, but from the salary 
must be deducted about $500 expended in the charge of them; 
the remainder will not support my large and growing family. 
My professional income is now greater, and altho' the salary 
is during life, yet I should feel myself compelled to resign 
whenever I should be unable thro' age or infirmity to fill the 
office with some reputation — and until that period I may hope 
to continue in the practice of the law. I have another consid- 
eration which perhaps has induced me to examine the question 
with less attention. If J. Lowell is not appointed, he will cer- 
tainly believe himself neglected & will resign which would be 
disagreeable to us all. And may I not ask how long the present 
system is to last, if it be established this session? 

The two political questions which agitate the public mind 
here are the election of a President & the ratification of the 
French Treaty. The Federalists seem not to be united in 
opinion upon these subjects. As to the first, the greater num- 
ber prefer Burr. He has no political theories repugnant to the 
form of the constitution or the former administration — His am- 
bition & interest will direct his conduct — and his own state is 
commercial & largely interested in the funded debt. If he will 
honorably support the government for which he has undoubted 
talents, he will have the support of the federalists and of 
some of the Jacobins whom he may detach — and his election 
will disorganize and embarrass the party who have given him 
their votes. If notwithstanding he should be hostile to the gov- 
ernment, he will not only be opposed by all the federalists & by 
some of the southern Jacobins who disappointed by the event 
will not willingly contribute to increase or confirm his interest 
or ambition — but his personal embarrassments will also lessen 
his weight, by creating jealousy of his sinister intentions. Thus 
they argue. Others are fearful of his activity of his talents & his 
personal courage. They consider Jefferson as a man cautious 



214 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

thro' timidity — that he will fear to go the lengths of his party, 
& will thereby disgust many of them: and proceeding slowly 
the chapter of accidents may furnish opportunities of self de- 
fence which the vigour of Burr will not admit of. I trust the 
federalists in Congress will form an impenetrable phalanx & 
standing on higher ground than we occupy, will decide with 
wisdom & vigour. 

On the second question it is generally agreed that parts of the 
Treaty are degrading to us as a nation and injurious to our citi- 
zens. But shall it be ratified? Some incline that way. However 
bad it is a worse one may be made by the approaching admin- 
istration; and no better can be obtained by any administration. 
It puts the old treaties out of question, and the repeal of the 
act annulling them will not revive them so as to give them 
priority — and its defects are so manifest that a consideration 
of them will have a tendency to impede the propagation of 
French principles. Others contend — that our real importance 
in the scale of commerce will command at some future time a 
better treaty — that no occasion can warrant a sacrifice of na- 
tional honour — once lost it cannot easily be recovered — that 
no embarrassments which this treaty will suspend will protect 
us against as great mischiefs from future negotiation, (which 
is purposely left open), by a new administration — that the 
great objects of our dread are french influence & british hostil- 
ity — and whether the treaty is ratified or not, a new adminis- 
tration can easily expose us to them. All however agree that 
the ratification if it take place should be modified by a clause 
similar to the one introduced into the British Treaty, that it 
should not affect any prior treaties. Thus you see that however 
these questions are determined, the determination will have ad- 
vocates among good men. I am glad that I am not called upon 
to give my voice on either of these questions, the reasons on 
both sides are so nearly equal, & the consequences of either 
decision are to be anticipated in some degree by conjecture only. 
Were I to decide today probably I should vote for Burr & for a 
modified ratification of the Treaty — to-morrow I might vote 
differently. However doubtful on these questions, I have no 
hesitation in assuring you that I am very sincerely 

your most obedt. & humble Servant 

Theop Parsons. 



JEFFERSON OR BURR? 215 

OTIS TO MRS. OTIS 

Washington 4 Feby 1801 

" Midst chains and bolts the active soul is free 
And flies unfettered Cavendish to thee." 

w w ii .uurd Russell's soul could flie out of jail to the embraces 
of his friends, it is not extraordinary that mine should escape 
from the hubbub of a debate about the bill for governing this 
city to my dearest friend, the companion of my life and the 
partner of all my joys. It is in this situation now I snatch a 
moment to reassure you of my own welfare, and what is always 
more material, to enquire after yours. Thus it is I speak a 
little and write a little and think a little and laugh a little and 
wish a great deal that ... my time of penance was over and 
gone. After closing my last, I received Dawes letter, by which 
you perceive that my hopes of office n are at end and will 
understand by what coalition of parties from the east and the 
west I have been defeated. The Governor from a desire to pre- 
serve a local popularity has abandoned the dictates of his own 
judgment and discarded the opinion of the whole court; but 
this is naturally to be expected from poor human nature. I was 
prepared for it, and care not a pinch of snuff for the result. 
It only confirms my opinion, that I must depend on my own 
exertions, without favor or affection places or promotion for 
my own prosperity & the advancement of my family, and I 
feel thank God that while my health continues I can provide 
for the comfort & happiness too of the dear objects which de- 
pend on me and constitute all that is dear to me. 

I shall now be constantly with you, and be dispensed from 
seperations of even three and four weeks at a time which be- 
come sufficiently tedious. 

You have done well to send for Rush, who I hope however 
will not bleed you, as I am sure that gentle medicine will 
answer every purpose. 18 . . . 

17 The office of Solicitor-General of Massachusetts. 

18 Mrs. Otis was then at Philadelphia, at the Harrisons'. If she escaped 
being bled by Dr. Rush, she was lucky— bleeding was his favorite remedy for 
every complaint from a cold in the head to yellow fever. 



216 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

What can I desire you to tell our friends in reply to their 
reiterated proofs of affection for both of us. They know all I 
can say and feel on this subject; therefore say simply to them 
that I love 'em dearly. 

Your affectionate H. G. Otis. 



CHAPTER XIII 

HARRY OTIS, FRIEND AND HOST 

Having reached the close of what Otis afterwards 
called " the first act of my political drama," let us aban- 
don for a time the political viewpoint, and glance at his 
personality and non-political activities, during the middle 
period of his life. Harry Otis the husband, father, friend, 
and host; Mr. Otis the brilliant orator and prominent cit- 
izen of Boston, is quite as interesting a person as the 
Honorable Harrison Gray Otis, politician and statesman. 
Among the citizens of all classes in Federalist Boston no 
one was so beloved or respected as he — and in that later 
Whig Boston, even Daniel Webster did not wholly sup- 
plant him in the affections of the people. This widespread 
admiration was due primarily, not to any supreme quali- 
ties as a statesman, or an orator, but to his well-rounded, 
vigorous personality. Josiah Quincy writes: "Men of the 
stamp of Sullivan and his friend Otis were more conspicu- 
ous for what they were, than for what they did. They 
were predominant men, and gave the community its 
quality, shaping, as if by divine right, its social and politi- 
cal issues." * But Quincy, himself, who knew Otis inti- 
mately notwithstanding the difference in their ages, de- 
spaired of transmitting his personality by pen and ink. 
"I wish it were in my power," he wrote in his diary, "to 
preserve for posterity some traces of the wit, brilliancy, 
eloquence, and urbanity of Harrison Gray Otis; for when 
he is gone there is no man who can make good his place in 

1 Josiah Quincy (1802-1882, son of Otis's contemporary of the same name), 
Figures of the Past, 323. 



218 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

society," a statement which is hardly encouraging for 
one who knows Otis only through his writings and tradi- 
tion. 

If the reader expects to find Otis a typical member of a 
Puritanic society, he will look in vain. Perhaps he has 
suspected as much already, from reading Otis's letters 
from the "Republican Court." In Otis were compre- 
hended the best and most charming characteristics of the 
society in which he was born and brought up, the Boston 
aristocracy; but in that society there were few Puritanic 
traits. The same claim cannot be made for the New Eng- 
land country gentry or the middle class at this period; 
among them the seventeenth-century Puritanic tradition 
was still fresh and vigorous. The country gentry pro- 
duced the typical New England statesmen of the time, 
men like Timothy Pickering and John Quincy Adams, 
both the very quintessence of Puritanism; Pickering hav- 
ing all the harsh, unlovely characteristics of that creed and 
race, and Adams all the finer and nobler traits. And both 
men, it is significant to note, disliked Otis with all the 
intensity of temperamental opposites. But the leaders of 
Boston society and Boston Federalism inherited the char- 
acteristics of that genial, pleasure-loving group to which 
Otis's grandparents belonged, the court of the colonial 
governors. In character they resembled more the famil- 
iar type of the Virginia or Carolina gentleman than their 
own country neighbors. When William Wirt, the distin- 
guished Virginia lawyer, visited Boston in 1829, he was 
astonished to find that his preconceived notions of Yan- 
kee society must be cast aside. "Otis has been twice 
with me, pressing me to dine with him," he wrote; "I 
have never received such a profusion of attentions any- 
where in my life. I think the people of Boston amongst 
the most agreeable in the United States . . . they are as 



HARRY OTIS, FRIEND AND HOST 219 

warm-hearted, as kind, as frank, as truly hospitable as 
the Virginians themselves. In truth, they are Virginian 
in all the essentials of character. Would to heaven the 
people of Virginia and Massachusetts knew each other 
better!" 2 Harrison Gray Otis was a typical member of 
the class that gave Wirt these impressions. 

At the prime of life " Harry" Otis, as his friends always 
called him, was slightly above the average height; well 
proportioned, with black hair, sparkling dark blue eyes, 
a thin, Roman nose, and a ruddy complexion. His per- 
sonal appearance, combined with his gracious charm of 
manner, gave him a rare personal distinction, without 
the slightest trace of stiffness or pomposity. Contem- 
poraries always described his appearance as "elegant" — 
a word now fallen into bad company — by which they 
meant to say that he dressed with care and fastidiousness, 
at a period when these qualities were by no means univer- 
sal among men of his class. Chief Justice Parsons, for 
instance, who was the conspicuous opposite to Otis in 
this respect, was even accused of returning from a week's 
circuit wearing one on top of the other the seven shirts 
with which his wife had provided him at the start. Of 
Otis it is related that he once met on the street a married 
couple of his acquaintance, as the lady was arranging 
the shirt ruffles of her untidy spouse. "There — look at 
Mr. Otis's bosom!" said she, pointing to his immaculate 
ruffles. "Madam," said Otis, with one of his best bows, 
"If your husband could look within my bosom, he would 
die of jealousy." 

The secret of Otis's popularity lay in his tact, affabil- 
ity, consideration for others, and a natural courtesy that 
came from the heart. To enumerate his circle of loyal 
friends would take pages. In Boston the most intimate, 

* J. F. Kennedy, Life of Wirt, n, 268-73. 



220 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

perhaps, were Thomas H. Perkins, William Sullivan, 
Isaac P. Davis, David Sears, Dr. John C. Warren, Theo- 
dore Lyman, Rufus G. Amory, Jonathan and Jere- 
miah Mason; in Philadelphia, George Harrison, Judge 
Hopkinson, and Charles Willing Hare; in New York, 
Rufus King; in Baltimore, Christopher Hughes and 
Robert Goodloe Harper; and in Charleston, John Rut- 
ledge and Thomas Pinckney. The fact that he formed as 
warm friendships among men of the Southern and Middle 
States as among his fellow Bostonians was typical of 
Otis. Consequently it was impossible for him ever to em- 
brace the extreme brand of New England Federalism 
affected by the Essex Junto and the "River Gods" of 
Connecticut. No matter how great the provocation, he 
could never bring himself to a belief that Disunion was 
preferable to Union. 

Enemies Otis had, as any man with a particle of back- 
bone must have had if he took part in the politics of that 
day; but he looked on mankind in general without a trace 
of that sour malignity which appears in the writings of 
his Puritanic colleagues. His correspondence is remark- 
ably free, considering the political bitterness of his day, 
from illiberal reflections on men and their motives; there 
is not, to my knowledge, a single harsh comment on the 
members of the Essex Junto, whose party selfishness and 
personal dislike of him he must have perceived. Since, 
like other party men, his particular abomination was 
political apostasy, he broke openly with Samuel Dexter 
after his desertion of the Federal party in 1813. Joseph 
Story he held suspect for many years on account of his 
early attachment to the Democratic party. Josiah 
Quincy once expressed to him the sentiment that Presi- 
dent Jackson could say unto this learned judge, after 
the death of Chief Justice Marshall, as Pharaoh did unto 



HARRY OTIS, FRIEND AND HOST 221 

Joseph, "Thou shalt be ruler over my house." "Joseph, 
indeed! Why, yes, an excellent comparison," snorted 
Otis. "Pray, was anything said about his coat of many 
colors?" 

It was impossible for Otis, with his sunny, genial na- 
ture, to carry on one of those lifelong political feuds which 
were meat and drink to some of his contemporaries. The 
nearest approach to one was his relationship with John 
Quincy Adams. No two men could have been more tem- 
peramentally unlike than Otis and Adams; the former 
frank, genial, and pleasure-loving, the latter cold, tact- 
less, rigidly conscientious, and above all, an Adams. 
"What a queer family!" Otis wrote of the Adamses in 
his old age, a propos of Charles Francis Adams's entry 
into politics. " I think them all (beginning with the grand- 
sire) varieties in a peculiar species of our race exhibiting 
a combination of talent, & good moral character, with 
passions and prejudices calculated to defeat their own 
objects & embarrass their friends, that would puzzle La 
Bruyere to describe & which has no Prototype in Shake- 
speare or Moliere." 

John Quincy Adams seems to have been under the 
delusion that Otis looked upon him as a rival, and a block 
to his political advancement; 3 but there is not the slight- 
est trace in Otis's writings of any such feeling. More- 
over, as Adams's diary and writings on several occasions 
show a belief that Otis was intriguing against him, the 
jealousy and rivalry would seem to have been all on his 
side; yet he was capable, as we shall see, of doing full 

3 " I know that from a very early date he [Otis] has personally been afflicted 
with the feelings of a rival towards me, a vague and general feeling of rivalry, 
for I never stood in the way of his wishes for any particular object. It was so 
with poor Bayard in a much greater degree, and with less reason." J. Q. A. to 
John Adams, Oct. 29, 1816. Adams MSS. In his Reply of 1829 Adams writes: 
" How long it has been since he has seen fit to look at me as an adder in his path 
is best known to himself." 



222 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

justice to Otis's character and personality. When Adams 
was read out of the Federal party for voting for Jeffer- 
son's Embargo, the first break between the two occurred. 
Their fathers were old and intimate friends, and Otis had 
loyally supported the elder Adams in 1800; but during 
the stormy years that followed, the clans of Otis and 
Adams ceased personal intercourse. The following letter 
from Abigail Adams to her son, then minister to Great 
Britain, describes the characteristic manner in which 
Otis brought about a reconciliation, at the beginning of 
the "era of good feelings ": 

Quincy, Aug. 27, 1816 
My dear Son . . . 

In this still calm, and political pause, I must entertain you 
with domestic occurrences, one of which is a Family visit, 
which we received a fortnight since from Mr W Foster, your 
old neighbor, 4 (who lost his Lady about two months since,) 
accompanied by Mrs A Otis 5 and daughter, Mr H G Otis 
Lady and daughter and son; who all came in a Body to take 
tea with us. This visit has been long in contemplation: Mrs A 
Otis was commissioned to inquire, if your Father would like 
to receive the visit? to which a candid reply was given that he 
should be pleased to receive it. Whether the Hartford mill- 
stone hung so heavy that it could not be thrown off, or for what 
other reason I cannot say, the visit was never accomplished un- 
till a fortnight since, when we past a very pleasant and social 
afternoon together. Upon taking leave Mr Otis in his very 
civil and polite manner, asked it as a favour that I would dine 
with him the next week? I replied, that I had long declined all 
invitations to dinner, as well as all public company, upon which 
he said it should be only a Family party. I then referred him 
to your Father who promptly accepted his invitation. Accord- 
ingly when the day came, we went, and were most kindly and 
cordially received by all the assembled families. Mr Mason 
[and] Mr Tudor were considered former appendages to us, and 

« H. G. O.'s father-in-law. 

6 Mrs. Samuel Allyue Otis, H. G. O.'s stepmother. 



HARRY OTIS, FRIEND AND HOST 223 

were a part of the company. All appeared pleased and mutually 
gratified. 

I know not when I have past a pleasanter day, and I could 
not but regret the hour of seperation. All this past off very well. 
I never expected to hear more of it. But you cannot imagine 
what a sensation it has created in the Capital. A Gentleman 
from Town yesterday inf ormd me, that it was a subject of specu- 
lation in the public offices. Whether the Stocks have risen or 
fallen in consequences, I do not pretend to say, but the wise ones 
cannot comprehend the phenomenon. Some whisper it was to 
obtain a recommendation for a foreign Mission, — now I do 
not believe in any such motive I ascribe it to the benevolent 
desire of extinguishing all party spirit, and to a desire of renew- 
ing former friendship, and Family intimacy. As such I received 
it, and in the same spirit returnd it. 6 

Peace was maintained between the two families until 
1828, when the feud broke out afresh, because John 
Quincy Adams accused the old Federalist leaders of hav- 
ing plotted the dissolution of the Union. An acrimon- 
ious controversy between Otis and Adams followed. 7 Yet 
only three years later Otis again came forward with the 
olive branch, thereby eliciting angry protests from some 
of his old friends and associates. To one of them he 
wrote, on May 20, 1833: 

I am told you are curious and puzzled for an explanation of 
my call on J Q A last year. It was the result of reflection and 
principle. In regard to the Bank and other great measures, he 
had conducted himself with propriety and ability. I knew 
he wanted to bury the hatchet, because entre nous, he sent me 

6 Abigail Adams to John Quincy Adams, Adams MSS., "Family Letters," 
ix. John Adams wrote his son on the same event, August 26, 1816 (Ibid., viii) : 
"As you live: your Father and Mother & Louisa dined last Tuesday in Boston 
with Judge Otis in the neatest Company imaginable; none but Otis's, Lymans, 
Thorndykes, Minots, Boardmans and Fosters, except Tudor and Mason. I 
never before knew Mrs. Otis. She has good Understanding. I have seldom if 
ever passed a more sociable day. Exert all your Witts to draw Inferences from 
this Phenomenon. Do you ascribe it to the Eclipse of 1806, to the Comet or to 
the spots in the sun?" 

7 See chapters xv and xxxi. 



224 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

word to that effect. The state of the nation, makes it desirable 
to strengthen the hands and encourage the hearts of all who are 
able and disposed to render services to the Country, on great 
occasions, though reliance is not to be placed upon their con- 
sistency, and as I could have no personal or selfish motive, & 
he must know it, I gave him a call which he return'd & there 
the matter drop'd. 

It is a pleasure to note that no better text can be found 
on which to base a description of Otis's social qualities, 
than a letter of John Quincy Adams to his father, written 
on receiving his account of the reconciliation of 1816: 

Since beginning this Letter I have received yours of 26. Au- 
gust and 5. September, and am highly gratified by your and my 
Mother's Account of your social party at Judge Otis's. Among 
the lights and shades of that worthy Senator's character, there 
is none which shows him in higher colours than his hospitality. 
In the course of nearly thirty years that I have known him, 
and throughout the range of experience that I have had in that 
time, it has not fallen to my lot to meet a man more skilled in 
the useful art of entertaining his friends than Otis; and among 
the many admirable talents that he possesses, there is none 
that I should have been more frequently and more strongly 
prompted to Envy; if the natural turn of my disposition had 
been envious. Of those qualities Otis has many — His Person 
while in Youth, his graceful Deportment, his sportive wit, his 
quick intelligence, his eloquent fluency, always made a strong 
impression upon my Mind; while his warm domestic Affections, 
his active Friendship, and his Generosity, always commanded 
my esteem . . . Mrs. Otis is and always has been a charming 
woman; and I am very glad you have seen them both in the 
place where of all others they appear to the greatest advantage 
— their own house. 8 

Otis was famous in his day for that "sportive wit" 
which Adams mentions among his attractive character- 
istics. We look in vain for it in his political correspond- 

8 J. Q. Adams, to John Adams, October 29, 1816, Adams MSS. "Family 
Letters," vn. 



HARRY OTIS, FRIEND AND HOST 225 

ence and speeches, for politics of the Federalist era were 
so intense and seemed so vital that to season them with 
humor was considered almost blasphemous. But Otis, 
who in private intercourse was always bubbling over 
with spontaneous fun and good nature, was the life of 
every assembly of men or women where he appeared. At 
public and private dinners he was the favorite toastmas- 
ter. A contemporary diary, describing a party in 1809, 
writes, "All went off with eclat, except the toasts, which 
were rather flat. The gentlemen were not prepared to be 
either witty or sentimental, and impromptus suit the 
genius of the French better than that of the English or 
their American descendants. Mr. Otis alone was happy 
on this occasion; his wit is ever ready." 9 Josiah Quincy 
gives an equally pleasing impression of him at a cattle- 
show in Worcester in 1829: 

The speeches by Otis and Everett were in the happiest vein; 
and a grand ball concluded the day. No, it did not conclude it, 
after all; for near midnight some gentlemen from Providence, 
who had arrived by the newly opened Blackstone Canal, invited 
a few of us to adjourn to a room they had engaged and taste 
some of "Roger Williams Spring," which they had brought 
all the way from the settlement he founded. Now this same 
spring, as it turned out, ran some remarkably choice Madeira, 
and this beverage, served with an excellent supper, furnished 
the material basis for brilliant displays of wit, flashing out 
upon the background of hearty and genial humor. Mr. Otis 
fairly surpassed himself. He was wonderful in repartee, and 
his old-fashioned stories were full of rollicking fun. I well re- 
member the account he gave of the first appearance of cham- 
pagne in Boston. It was produced at a party given by the 
French consul, and was mistaken by his guests for some espe- 
cially mild cider of foreign growth. The scene was beneath the 
dignity of history, to be sure; but taken as a sort of side-show, 
it was very enjoyable. 

9 J. Winsor, Boston, iv, 18. 



226 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

The examples that Mr. Quincy gives us of Harry Otis's 
humor consist, unfortunately, of puns — a form of wit- 
ticism then prevailing, and now, happily, gone out of 
fashion. We shall not repeat them. A more convincing 
example of his ready wit — although to appreciate it 
requires some knowledge of Massachusetts topography 
— was told me by Mr. Frank H. Sanborn, who heard it 
from his friend Wendell Phillips. It seems that one of 
the colleagues of Otis and the elder Phillips in the State 
Senate, about the year 1808, rejoiced in the curious name 
of Salem Town. On one occasion, when the Democratic 
minority offered a "joker" resolution, drawn up with 
the express purpose of trapping unwary Federalists into 
endorsing Democratic principles, Mr. Town, alone of the 
Federalist majority, swallowed the bait, and voted " Yea " 
in the roll-call. Otis came up to him, after the vote had 
been taken, and remarked in a solemn tone, "Mr. Town, 
your parents were four miles out of the way, more or less, 
in naming you." "Four miles, Mr. Otis! What do you 
mean, sir?" — "Instead of Salem Town, they should 
have christened you Marble Head ! " 

Social life in Boston in the first decade of the nine- 
teenth century was already becoming more elaborate, 
as a natural result of material prosperity. We hear 
of numerous private balls, and little cotillion parties, of 
music furnished by a Turkish band, of peaches and 
melons in November — not bad, for a town of thirty 
thousand inhabitants. The waltz was not yet introduced, 
however, — Otis when seeing it for the first time at 
Washington, in 1818, thought it an "indecorous exhibi- 
tion" — and the bulk of the evening parties were simply 
conversazioni, with elaborate suppers. Social clubs for 
the men, with houses of their own, were not founded in 



HARRY OTIS, FRIEND AND HOST 227 

Boston before Otis's old age, but in this first decade of the 
nineteenth century, several of the dinner clubs, which 
are still a characteristic feature of Boston social life, were 
formed among congenial friends. They met weekly or fort- 
nightly at the members' houses or at some well-known 
coffee-house. Otis, with William Sullivan, Thomas Hand- 
asyd Perkins, and other choice spirits, belonged to one 
of these coteries known as the "Saturday Fish Club," of 
which little more than the name is known. Sullivan, 
however, writes Otis on Sunday, January 13, 1822: 

The club dined yesterday at Mr Joy's — wine from 20 to 
45 years old — and no better for being more than 20. Besides 
the members we had Mr. Henderson of N. York — [and] Mr 

K[ing] — Brother Rufus, who complained to Mr J that 

the women wear no pockets nowadays. . . . Joy broke the 
sober rules of the club, by bringing in oysters from the shell, to 
give a gout, and a market, for his wine; — it certainly needed 
no such aid. 

The alliance between gentility and government con- 
tinued in Massachusetts long after it was sundered in the 
nation as a whole. Boston society was Federalist to 
the core, and supplied practically all the Federalist lead- 
ers. As a consequence, it looked with mingled fear and 
contempt upon the Democratic party, and consistently 
ostracized the few gentlemen like Elbridge Gerry, Perez 
Morton, and (after 1808) John Quincy Adams, who be- 
longed to it. Seldom, before the "era of good feelings," 
was a follower of Jefferson invited to pass the portals 
of a leading Boston family. Mr. Theophilus Parsons, Jr., 
tells us, in his memoir of his father, that he never saw a 
"Jacobin" in his father's house until 1807, when his 
Uncle Cross, a Maine Democrat, was invited to dine there 
while visiting Boston. The children examined him atten- 
tively, as a specimen of a new and strange breed. In the 



228 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

course of the dinner, the Chief Justice remarked pleas- 
antly, "Mr. Cross, take a glass of wine with me," and 
handed him the decanter, when to the consternation of 
the company, young Theophilus called out, "Why, he is 
not a Jacobin, after all!" — "No, my young friend, I am 
not a Jacobin; at least, I hope not," — said Uncle Cross. 
"Did you think I was?" — " Yes, sir," said young hope- 
ful, "but I see you are not, for I have heard father say, 
again and again, that nothing on earth would make him 
drink wine with a Jacobin!" — at which point the con- 
versation was broken off by young Theophilus being sent 
away from the table. 

Another amusing instance of Federalism in social life, 
is given in the diary of Otis's half sister, Harriet, at the 
age of twenty-four. Speaking of a public ball at Wash- 
ington, she writes: 

An introduction to the Messrs W , printers and demos, 

the most remarkable circumstance — felt my pride a little hurt 
but checked such rebellious risings as well as I could at the time 
and when such things are over they serve only for diversion. 

It is a mistake to put this feeling down to snobbishness. 
Strange as it may seem, Otis and his friends, who dreaded 
democracy in theory, were in many ways more democratic 
than those who occupy a similar position to-day. They 
lived on terms of friendly intimacy with their servants, 
their tradespeople, and their country neighbors. Mr. 
Hale tells us how "almost any morning might be seen 
Col. Thos. H. Perkins, Harrison Gray Otis, William (Billy) 
Gray, Ben. Bussey, Peter C. Brooks, Israel Thorndike 
and other wealthy towns folk, trudging homeward for 
their eight o'clock breakfast with their market baskets 
containing their one o'clock dinner." 10 One of Mr. Par- 

10 J. W. Hale, Old Boston Town ...by an 1801-er, 12. 



HARRY OTIS, FRIEND AND HOST 229 

sons's stories may give us the key to this seeming incon- 
sistency. When a Salem man asked the elder Parsons 
why the Newburyporters were forever quarreling about 
religion, he replied, "Because we look upon religion as 
having a real importance. We think it worth quarrel- 
ing about; you don't." The situation was the same in 
politics. Federalists and Republicans alike, at the period 
of which we speak, took their politics with a grim earnest- 
ness that the present generation can hardly comprehend. 
To a Federalist, a Jacobin was an anarchist, who would 
pull down the whole political and social structure; Jacob- 
inism was a disease to be avoided and proscribed. Dance 
with a Jacobin? Drink wine with a Jacobin? Of course 
not ! Would the daughter of Jefferson Davis have danced 
with Wendell Phillips? Would Pius IX have invited 
Cavour to dinner? 



The role in which Otis always appeared to his best ad- 
vantage was that of host to this Federalist aristocracy. 
John Quincy Adams, with all his experience in the society 
of Washington and European capitals, could write that 
he had never met a man "more skilled in the useful art of 
entertaining his friends " than Otis. He and his wife were 
blessed with the means and facilities for indulging their 
natural hospitality to their heart's desire. Just before 
returning to Boston in 1801, Otis sold his house on the 
corner of Cambridge and Lynde Streets, and built a 
much larger one, now number 85 Mount Vernon Street, 
on his portion of the old Copley pasture. This in turn he 
sold in 1807, and built the spacious mansion, now number 
45 Beacon Street. Here was his home for the remaining 
forty-one years of his life. Few private dwellings even of 
to-day can compare in size and comfort to the old Otis 



230 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

mansion. It was open in front on the Common, with a 
view of the Blue Hills across the Back Bay, then a broad 
sheet of water that came within two hundred yards of the 
door. On the other three sides it was surrounded by 
courtyards and gardens, with an extensive ell, stables, 
and outbuildings. 11 Some idea of its size may be gained 
from the fact that in the last eighteen years of its owner's 
life it sheltered himself, three of his married children, 
with their offspring, each family having a private sitting- 
room, besides allowing an entire floor for entertaining, and 
leaving plenty of room for guests. Such a house might be 
thought enough for any man, but in 1809 Otis purchased 
a large farm in Watertown, and by extensive improve- 
ments to the house and grounds turned it into a beautiful 
country estate, which he named "Oakley" — it is now 
the Oakley Country Club. A propos of the purchase, 
John Rutledge wrote Otis from Charleston, June 6, 1809: 

Having settled the affairs of the State, & put Democracy 
"in a Hole," as that queer gentleman John Adams quaintly 
said, it seems you have bought a Villa, & are going to indulge in 
a little rural felicity. This I presume is the Ton at Boston, & as 
Mrs. Otis & the President 12 are at the head of the fashionables, 
getting this Country seat was, I presume, quite "en regie." 
But it really seemed to me that having such a House as you 
have, with the whole Common of Boston as an Apendage, & 
open & improved grounds all around, might have satisfied any 
man of ordinary ambition. I will with very great pleasure send 
you an assortment of Seeds of Shrubs & Plants which may sub- 
sist in your frozen region — but this, my good friend, is not the 
season. I have spoken to a Mr. Champneys who is the President 
of our Agricultural Society, & has in this neighbourhood a 
prodigiously fine garden, & he promises to make an assortment 

11 The site of the two houses to the east of the Otis mansion (now Mr. 
Dixey's, and the annex to the Somerset Club) was Otis's garden until 1831. He 
then built one of these houses for his daughter Mrs. Ritchie, and sold the re- 
maining lot. 

12 Otis was then President of the State Senate. 



HARRY OTIS, FRIEND AND HOST 231 

of plants for you in the season, which will not [be] before the 
month of December. He says that altho' you are an Oracle in 
Politics & in law, that you are in the very horn book of Botany 
& Gardening in supposing that Plants can be removed at this 
Season. As Mr. Robert [Rutledge] has determined to make a 
visit to Boston I shall have the pleasure of seeing you deo vo- 
lente about the beginning of August. Before that time I shall 
take the liberty of introducing to your acquaintance one of my 
sisters, Mrs. Laurens, who in consequence of indisposition of 
health must travel this summer & will pass a week or two at 
Boston. Altho I owe you more on the score of friendship than 
any man living, yet when Mrs. Laurens leaves us, I must add 
to my Debt by recommending her to the charities of Mrs. Otis 
& yourself. I pray of you to present me affectionately to Mrs. 
Otis, Miss Eliza, Sarah & the young folks. I request you would 
give my affections to Mason & say to him that I shall be in 
Boston in August — in the meantime God bless you & yours — 

J.R 

Oakley was the scene of many a jolly house party, but 
the Beacon Street mansion was the centre of Otis hospi- 
tality. Here in 1817 Otis entertained President Monroe, 
during his visit to Boston that inaugurated the "era of 
good feelings"; in fact, he offered the entire house to the 
Chief Magistrate and his suite, who refused this lavish 
hospitality. In the spring and summer a constant stream 
of family friends came for visits from New York, Phila- 
delphia, Virginia, and Charleston. Almost every visitor 
of distinction in Boston brought a letter of introduction 
to Mr. Otis and received his hospitality, — "We have 
kept tavern for John Bull these thirty years," he wrote in 
1820. Every Thanksgiving a huge family reunion of the 
numerous Otis, Foster, Lyman, and Thorndike connec- 
tions was held around the great dining-table. In the 
winter season, there were frequently parties of two hun- 
dred or more, and little incidents like the following, 
related in one of Otis's letters, were not uncommon: 



232 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

Night before last, Sophia undertook to ask Mrs I. P. Davis 
and Miss Lovell to eat buckwheats, and the party swelled to 
between twenty & thirty, — all the 2nd & 3d generation of 
Fosters, my sisters, Thorndikes, Callanders, Holleys, and half 
a doz Codmans, Grays, Brooks' &c to fill up chinks. 

Those old Bostonians thoroughly and sincerely en- 
joyed the fine art of eating and drinking. While the Otis 
family were in residence, a blue-and-white Lowestoft 
punch-bowl, with a capacity of about ten gallons, was 
placed every afternoon on the landing halfway up to the 
drawing-room, and kept filled with punch for the benefit 
of visitors. Otis was famous as a gourmet and a connois- 
seur of wines, although how he managed to indulge in the 
good things of this world on the scale that he did through 
forty gouty years, is hard to imagine. Family tradition 
is positive that a regular breakfast dish of his, even at 
the age of eighty, was a moderate-sized terrine of pate de 
foie gras. After beginning the day in this fashion, the 
Otis family would have a hearty lunch at eleven or twelve, 
followed by dinner at some time between half-past two 
and half-past four, and a substantial supper at eight or 
nine in the evening. It is safe to say that the punch-bowl 
on the stairs prevented the male members of the family 
from becoming thirsty during the afternoon, and Otis 
tradition assures us that a special ice-chest, within easy 
reach, was kept filled with jellies, whips, and syllabubs for 
whoever might be attacked by hunger between meals. At 
the dinner-table, there was none of your modern false 
modesty about looking at food, — the joints and pies 
were kept on the table, to regale the sight and the nostrils. 
Variety was not great, but abundance was unstinted. "I 
wish you could get here by dinner time," Otis once wrote 
to his wife, while she was at New York, and the older chil- 
dren at Oakley. He then adds a sketch of the dining- 



HARRY OTIS, FRIEND AND HOST 



233 



room by way of explanation. Mr. Theodore Lyman is 
dining with Mr. Otis, and William and James Otis, aged 
fourteen and fifteen, are seated at the sideboard; all are 
eating their soup. A large saddle of mutton adorns the 
centre of the table, and the four corners are garnished 
with a leg of lamb, a Virginia ham, a "pye," and a salmon. 
"Brants & chickens for second course," a note informs 
us : the vegetables and dessert are left to the imagination. 
If this was a simple family meal, the table must have 
fairly groaned at a formal dinner. Otis in his later years 
loved to relate the answer of his victualer, when pressed 
to tell whether he had any customer so good as Mr. Otis. 
After scratching his head awhile, the tradesman, a non- 
committal Yankee, replied that he guessed he sent about 
as much to the Hotel Albion. 

The consumption of old Madeira in nineteenth-cen- 
tury Boston was likewise enormous. Otis's old friend, 
George Harrison, of Philadelphia, was the United States 
agent for the famous house of Duff Gordon & Co., and 
received the orders of Otis and his Boston friends for that 
king of wines. Here is a sample consignment of Madeira 
at forty-six pounds sterling the pipe (a double hogshead 
containing one hundred and twenty-six gallons) : 



Jonn. Mason 60 Dy St 13 


£46 


Ditto 


i< << 


82.10. 


Gardiner Green 


( (C 


46 


Ditto 


EC (( 


46 


I. P. Davis 


< (< 


82.10. 


John Lowell Junr. 


EC << 


60 


Thomas Perkins 


E< it 


46 


Lady Temple 14 


It << 


46 


William Phillips 


(< << 


46 



13 Abbreviation for "Draft at sixty days' sight." 

14 Widow of Sir John Temple, the former British consul-general, and grand- 
mother of Robert C. Winthrop. 



234 



HARRISON GRAY OTIS 



60 Dy St 



(( 


< 


46 


(( < 


( 


46 


cc 


EC 


46 


(( < 


( 


46 


(< 


EC 


46 


« 


[( 


46 


(( 


EC 


46 


(i 


EC 


92 


cc 


[< 


23.10. 


<( 


EC 


23.10. 


(( 


EC 


23.10. 


{( 


EC 


46 




£ Stg 1077.10. 



Jeremiah Allen 
Andrew Allen 
Benjn. Bussey 
Danl Davis 
Commodore Preble 
E. H. Derby 
John Phillips 
P C Brooks 
Andrew Seaton 
John Philips Junr. 
Prentess Mellen 
Saml S Wilde 
H. G. Otis 



In addition to his quota in the above consignment, 
which arrived in September, 1807, Otis procured another 
pipe direct. The previous year, he had received "2 pipes 
choice particular Madeira wine in strong iron-bound 
casks at £45 Stg. p. pipe, mark'd H G O branded I A G," 
and "1 Pipe ditto wine"; but in 1809 he evidently con- 
sidered it necessary to lay in a new stock, for in that year 
George Harrison writes, "I will order 'H G O — G H' 
of very superior wine for you, & God grant that I may 
partake of it when ripe 7 years hence." 

A natural consequence of the high living then preva- 
lent was the gout, with which Otis was afflicted during the 
last forty years of his life. It was an irritating disease, 
that soured the temper of many an old gentleman; but 
Otis's temper and constitution were both proof against it. 
Although he lived to the age of eighty-three, he retained 
until the last his wit, good nature, and every quality that 
endeared him to his fellow men. 



CHAPTER XIV 

[FAMILY RELATIONS — EXPANSION — LITERATURE — 
ORATORY — HARVARD COLLEGE 

1801-1816, mt. 36-51 

Many persons who did not know Otis well, and a num- 
ber of those who did, imagined him consumed with am- 
bition for political preferment. Otis was ambitious, as 
most politicians and statesmen are, for as John Quincy 
Adams once wrote: "The selfish and the social passions 
are intermingled in the conduct of every man acting in a 
public capacity. It is right that they should be so, and it 
is no just cause of reproach to any man that in promoting 
to the utmost of his power the public good, he is desirous 
at the same time of promoting his own." Otis liked the 
sense of leadership, the excitement, and the glory, such 
as there was, in political life; but he liked still more the 
quiet of private life, and the liberty to employ his time 
in contributing to the enjoyment of his family and friends. 
He frequently refused public office, when the acceptance 
of it meant separation from his family or interference in 
any way with his domestic happiness. A few extracts 
from his letters to Mrs. Otis will show that he was essen- 
tially a man of domestic tastes. 

December 3, 1797. 

You think it probable I shall find this path of politics rough 
with thorns. I agree that it is very probable. But is it not bet- 
ter to make the experiment early and to realize the vanity of 
these pursuits in season to leave them and follow such as are 
more consolatory? I always knew that my habits were naturally 
domestic and that my happiness was to be found only in the 



236 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

bosom of my family. Perhaps however I owe something to my 
country, and I may as well discharge the debt now, as at a 
time when my children will require my more constant and im- 
mediate attention. I must however consider my seperation 
from you under any circumstances, as a chasm in my existence, 
which no honors can fill up; & which having once passed, I 
shall not consent to widen by leaving you again. 

February 4, 1800. 

Dear Angel; — but a few weeks and I come to you; never 
(unless forced by necessity), never again to quit your side 
for distant & tedious employments. It is my firm resolution, 
not to serve another Congress, whether I shall resign, before 
the next session, depends much on yourself, if health & inclina- 
tion should render it eligible for you to accompany me, & suit- 
able accomodations can be procured it is probable that I may 
take you to Washington for one season; but I certainly will 
never go there without you. 

When he refused the Federalist nomination for Repre- 
sentative and returned to Boston, in 1801, it was with the 
hope of giving up politics altogether. But he was soon 
forced back into the whirlpool by the pressure of his 
friends and by his own sense of duty. Every year from 
1802 to 1817 he served in one branch or another of the 
State Legislature, a career with much hard work, and no 
compensating glory. " I have not yet had a chance of liv- 
ing for myself," he writes his Aunt Warren in 1809, "nor 
for the pleasures of and advantages of sweet communion 
with any particular connections. I sometimes am so san- 
guine as to hope that these blessings are not forever 
alienated from me even in this world, but the hours fly, 
and my white hairs become daily more discernible." 

In 1816, every effort was made to make Otis accept the 
Federalist nomination for Governor of Massachusetts. 
"I have authorized and requested particular persons to 
say in the most positive and unequivocal manner that I 



FAMILY RELATIONS 237 

will not be a Candidate," he wrote his wife, on January 19 
of that year; "I wish not to espouse the Commonwealth 
while you live, nor to take charge of the immense family, 
untill my own boys are provided for." In spite of his pro- 
tests, the formal nomination was tendered to him, and 
promptly declined. A few days later he wrote Mrs. Otis : 

There is great sensation produced by my declining what all 
the wise and sagacious heads believe to have been the object 
of my pursuit for years. . . . Nobody can imagine my motives 
for refusing what was never refused before, because nobody 
can conceive that the joys of domestic life and the command 
of ones own society and movements are to be placed in com- 
petition with the honor of the office. 

The following year (1817) Otis accepted a seat in the 
United States Senate, a position considered at that time 
inferior to a governorship, to which he subsequently 
aspired ; but his action was due to special circumstances, 
namely, his share in the responsibility for incurring the 
Massachusetts war claim. 1 The fact remains that he 
refused the highest honor that his party could bestow 
upon him, simply because he feared that it would con- 
flict with his domestic happiness. According to family 
tradition, however, Otis during his later*life would have 
welcomed a diplomatic appointment from the federal 
government. His friends always believed that any post 
he desired might have been his, had he confessed his polit- 
ical sins and abjured the Hartford Convention. It was 
well known that he was frequently conducted to a high 
mountain-top by leaders of the Jeffersonian party, and 
shown visions of great offices and honors that might be 
his, if he would become one of them. 2 But Otis was not 

1 See below, chap. xxix. 

2 J. Quincy, Figures of the Past, 317; S. K. Lothrop, Sermon on H. G. Otis, 24; 
Loring, 202. In 1808, after Christopher Gore had been given the Federalist 
nomination for governor, the opposition press openly hinted that only in the 



238 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

the man to renounce the truth and right, as he saw it, for 
worldly advantage, and he always let it be distinctly 
understood that whoever chose him, chose an unrepent- 
ant Hartford Convention Federalist. It is a great pity 
that the country could not have had the services of such 
a man as Harrison Gray Otis at the court of St. James or 
of the Tuileries; his tactful, genial nature, his fine pres- 
ence and genuine hospitality, his education and gentle 
blood, his long experience in public life, all fitted him for 
a high diplomatic position. But it would have required 
a remarkable degree of political temerity for any 
President of the United States to honor the leader and 
defender of the Hartford Convention. 

The position that Otis loved, far more than any politi- 
cal honor, was that of chief of his numerous clan of chil- 
dren and grandchildren, nephews, nieces, and cousins. 3 
When he settled down in Boston for good in 1801, he 
already had a family of six; two children had died young; 

Democratic party could an Otis hope to receive due recognition of his talents. 
In 1816 a number of leading Democrats offered to support him for the Demo- 
cratic nomination for governor, against Samuel Dexter. (Otis to Mrs. Otis, 
February 11, 1816.) 

3 His children were as follows: 

1. Elizabeth Gray Otis, 1791-1824, m. George W. Lyman, son of Theodore 
Lyman. Four children. 

2. Harrison Gray Otis, Jr., 1792-1827, a lawyer of some prominence ; m. 
(1817) Eliza Henderson Boardman, the well-known and public-spirited Mrs. 
Harrison Gray Otis of Civil War times. Five children. 

3. Sally Otis, 1793-1819, m. Israel Thorndike, Jr. Four children. 

4. Mary Foster Otis, 1795-96. 

5. Alleyne Otis, 1796-1806. 

6. George Otis, 1797-98. 

7. Sophia Harrison Otis, 1798-1874, m. (1823) Andrew Ritchie, Jr. Three 
children. 

8. James William Otis, 1800-69, a merchant, resided in New York, m. (1825) 
Martha C. Church, of Providence. Seven children. 

9. William Foster Otis, 1801-58, a prominent lawyer and churchman; m. 
(1831) Emily Marshall, the celebrated beauty. Three children. 

10. Alleyne Otis, 1807-73. 

11. George Harrison Otis, 1810-33. 



FAMILY RELATIONS 239 

and three more were afterwards born: in all seven sons 
and four daughters. In his family life Otis appeared at 
his very best. It was usual, in the early nineteenth cen- 
tury, for parents to impress their children with the fact 
that an awful gulf existed between them and their elders. 
"Honored Papa," and "Honored Mamma," were the 
proper titles by which to address a parent, and the for- 
malities of a court were exacted in the daily life of the 
household. With the Otis family it was otherwise. Har- 
rison Gray Otis, without spoiling his children, made him- 
self their friend, and like Squire Bracebridge, made each 
and every one feel that home was the best place on earth. 
Otis was the patron saint of his poor relations, espe- 
cially of the loyalist Grays in England, who were ever im- 
pecunious. Until 1830 Harrison Gray the younger lived a 
grumbling existence in London, supported by a small 
pension from the government, and the little American 
property that his nephew had managed to save from the 
old Treasurer's estate. The reader may remember Jack 
Gray, the young loyalist of 1775, who was entrusted to 
the Otises in Barnstable for safe keeping during the siege 
of Boston. His capacity for getting into trouble evidently 
remained his leading characteristic, to judge from the 
following letter, from Harrison Gray to Otis, describing 
Uncle Jack's departure for Demerara to seek his fortune : 

N44 Rathbone Place June 4th 1804 
Dear nephew — 

. . . Your Uncle saild from Falmouth the 3d of April with a 
fair Wind which continued three Weeks so I am in hopes he has 
arrived before this time to the place of his destination. ... I 
hope to God he will do well, the great expectation I have formed 
of it has in great measure tranquillized my Pillow, his greatest 
Fault is being too easy and thinks every person is as well dis- 
posed as himself, but unfortunately he had reason to Alter his 



240 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

Opinion before he left Town as the very Evening before he in- 
tended to leave Town he was arrested and taken to a Spunging 
House by a Man he had conceived to be his good Friend, I had to 
borrow the money the next day to get him liberated the debt 
was twenty pounds & the Damn infamous Charges £9.5.7 
this happened on a Saturday & I wishd him very much to leave 
London on the Thursday before as I was sensible he was exposed 
every day he appeared to a Set of Rapacious Creditors who only 
wanted to find him to distress him, he thought well of them, 
the next day After he was discharged from this execrable & 
infamous place, which is a disgrace to the Government, I was 
determined to get him out of London & the next morning he 
went & arrived at Portsmouth in the Evening & he wrote me the 
day After to say the Ship from the Downs had not got round 
and the next Sunday following as I was at Breakfast a Knock 
at my door was Announced, and as Usual I said walk in, and 
to my Utter Astonishment, when I turned my head round, I 
found it was your Uncle, I was surprized to that degree that I 
was deprived of the power of Utterance for some time & so 
was he, when I recoverd I said in the Name of God what has 
happened have you lost your passage, he said no but as he was 
going to embark he was Arrested for £13.10 by a Hair dresser 
who he did not owe one farthing to, and who he saw every 
day before he left Town, the Scoundrel took the Advantage of 
his situation as he knew all his moments & swore to his debt. 
Your Uncle was soaked through as he rode all Night outside 
the Coach, inside being full. I made him comfortable by a 
change of Cloaths & lined his inside to prevent his taking cold, 
the day he was Arrested there was no post to London & he did 
not know a person there & the Convoy waiting only for a fair 
Wind to depart under all these unpleasant Circumstances. The 
Sheriffs advised him to step into the Coach for London & return 
the next day & they made him deposit all his baggage Watch 
&c &c as a pledge until he returned, & being Sunday I did not 
know where to apply for the money as all Banks were shut & 
most all my Friends in the Country, fortunately the Man of 
the House where I live had twenty pounds by him which I 
borrowed and added two more as the Charges was £7.15.6 & 
immediately sent to take his place for that Evening & after I 
made him eat a Beefsteak & a pint of Wine I accompanied him 



FAMILY RELATIONS 241 

to the Coach & saw him off once more After paying £50.11.1 
which to a positive Certainty woud have been saved, if he had 
left Town the day I urged him. as the poor fellow seemed so 
much Affected I could not find it in my heart to say any thing 
about it, my Mind was on the torture for fear he would lose his 
passage, as the Wind changed favorable. I had no peace until 
I heard from him which was on Tuesday dated at 3 oClock 
on Monday saying he Arrived at 8 oClock very much fatigued 
not having his Cloaths off for 48 hours having rode two Nights 
& that the infamous Scoundrels did not discharge him until 
3 oClock & he was then going on board as the Convoy was 
Under Weigh with a fair Wind, you can better judge of my 
extreme suffering, & the torture my mind experienced than 
I can possibly find Language to convey and I did not know 
until Thursday whether he got on board, this is a true Account 
so help me God. remember me affectionately to all your dear 
family & I sincerely wish your health & happiness may be as 
great as your liberality & Kindness has been to your good Uncle 
tho unfortunate he received the twenty pounds from Messr 
Dickason & he told me he had wrote you. God bless you & 
am in great haste your Affectionate Uncle & friend 

HGray 

That Scoundrel Bonaparte is made Emperor of the gauls &c 
&c & I am afraid he will ultimately be Emperor of all the World. 

The fever in the West Indies soon put an end to the 
troubles of happy-go-lucky Uncle Jack, and on Otis fell 
the duty of helping support the two orphan daughters 
left entirely destitute. Otis in fact acquired among the 
Gray connection a reputation for benevolence far too 
great for his comfort. In June, 1812, he received a letter 
from a prominent lawyer of New Orleans informing him 
of the sudden death the previous October of "Judge 
Turner and his lady," the former a Boston man who had 
settled on a sugar plantation in Louisiana, the latter a 
daughter of Harrison Gray, Jr. After giving a few details 
in regard to the property, which seemed likely to be wiped 
out by debts, the writer coolly announced : 



242 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

I proceed to inform you, that I now send you their seven 
children by the brig Juno, Capt: Arnold, accompanied by an 
old Negro woman named Dolly ... to whom the children are 
extremely attached. . . . You will be satisfied, I presume, Sir, 
with my addressing these unhappy orphans to you, in prefer- 
ence to any other person of Mr. Turner's family, whose names 
have come to my knowledge. I know by letters I have found 
among the papers of the deceased, that he had a Mother & a 
sister living, but neither of them in a situation to take such a 
charge upon them. I know too that he had a brother living in 
Boston. . . . But Sir, having heard on all hands, that your 
fortune & respectability render you the only person to whom 
I can with propriety send them, I cannot hesitate at so doing; 
and I do it in the full confidence that you will receive and act 
by them, as I am persuaded our poor deceased friend wou'd 
have done by yours under like circumstances. 

The writer goes on to request that Otis see to the main- 
tenance and education of these seven children, without 
any likelihood of procuring a penny for their support from 
their father's estate. Otis, as maybe supposed, was some- 
what taken aback by this extraordinary announcement. 
He threatened to send the seven unfortunate orphans 
back to New Orleans, if sufficient funds for their support 
were not relinquished from the estate by the lawyers. 
Since they finally produced the money, Otis was relieved 
from the painful alternative of adding seven children to 
his own family of eight, or of letting them become objects 
of charity. 

The first decade after Otis's return to Boston was one 
of economic expansion, and intellectual awakening for his 
native town. The population of Boston increased from 
24,000 in 1800 to 34,000 in 1810; the import and export 
trade expanded in even greater proportion. Boston ves- 
sels were taking the American flag into every port of the 
globe. The Canton trade, in which Otis's lifelong friend, 



EXPANSION 243 

Thomas Handasyd Perkins, made a fortune, was already 
established, and through Boston enterprise trade-routes 
were opened to Russia and to the Oregon country, whither 
Captain Gray's Columbia had shown the way. Otis never 
engaged in commerce, but he did his part in the corre- 
sponding development of Boston itself. A long head for 
business was one of his few Puritanic qualities, since it 
was mainly by wise investments in real estate that his 
property grew from nothing at all in 1786 to a consider- 
able fortune in 1810. There were, indeed, few forms of 
local enterprise with which he was not connected. It was 
due in part to his foresight, as we have seen, that Beacon 
Hill became a residential district. The laying out of 
Charles Street in 1804 opened up this property consider- 
ably, and before long the old Copley Pasture began to 
make some return to the Mount Vernon Proprietors on 
their original investment and on the large sums they 
found necessary to expend for improvements. 

The town was becoming cramped on its narrow pen- 
insula even in 1801, when Otis joined in several enter- 
prises for securing more room by artificial means. He 
was a member of the Broad Street Association, that 
extended the shore line near Fort Hill, and of the cor- 
poration that filled in the old mill pond near the pre- 
sent North Station. He was largely responsible for the 
annexation to Boston of Dorchester Neck, now South 
Boston, for building the first bridge to it from Boston, 
and for the earliest development of that part of the 
city. 4 

4 Otis, Jonathan Mason, Joseph Woodward, William Tudor, and Gardiner 
Greene purchased the greater part of Dorchester Neck in 1803, and were incor- 
porated as the South Boston Association. There were only ten families then 
living on the Neck, and communication with Boston was extremely difficult, 
both on account of the long detour, and the mud flats in the harbor, which pre- 
vented the plying of any regular ferry. After much resistance from Dorches- 
ter, the annexation of the Neck to Boston was completed in 1801, and the 



244 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

The outward appearance of the town was much 
changed in these years. A former Boston loyalist, who 
returned as a British spy in 1808, wrote, "The great num- 
ber of new and elegant buildings which have been erected 
in this Town, within the last ten years, strike the eye 
with astonishment, and prove the rapid manner in which 
the people have been acquiring wealth." 5 Another visi- 
tor, in the year 1816, noted that Boston could boast of 
more splendid private dwellings than any city of four 
times its population he had seen, in America or Europe. 6 
Several blocks of four and five-story buildings had been 
erected, intruding upon the pleasant gardens and open 
spaces, and the Exchange Coffee-House, built by a cor- 
poration of which Otis was president, arose to the dizzy 
height of seven stories. For the ten years of its existence 
(it burnt down in 1818) this structure was the largest 
hotel and office building in the country. 

Expansion during this first decade of the nineteenth 
century in Boston, was not wholly material. The intel- 
lectual ferment of the age, penetrating this conservative 
town, produced a new interest in literature which pre- 
pared the way for the great movement of the Thirties, 
that made Boston the literary centre of America. 7 Little 

Association then built the first bridge across the channel. The influence of 
commercial interests in South Bay prevented the building of the bridge where 
it should have been, and the growth of South Boston was thereby impeded. 
Others besides Otis and his associates reaped the profit of its later development. 
The bridge which never paid a dividend, was sold in 1832, at six per cent of its 
original cost. 

5 Amer. Hist. Rev., xvn, 78. 

8 E. S. Thomas, Reminiscences, i, 18. 

7 It must be kept in mind that Boston did not earn the title of "Athens of 
America" until the first quarter of the nineteenth century was well past. At 
this period Philadelphia was the literary centre, if there can be a literary centre, 
when no literature of permanent value was produced. It was there that Tom 
Moore met in 1803 the "sacred few," without whom 

Columbia's days were done, 
Bank without ripeness, quickened without sun. 



LITERATURE 245 

was produced, but much was read. Suspicious Federal- 
ism tabooed the romanticism of Jean-Jacques and his 
countrymen, who were lumped together as " infidel philos- 
ophers," but it welcomed the corresponding movement 
in Great Britain, since the approval of the British public 
vouched for the fact that no "disorganizing principles" 
were concealed therein. The well-worn Popes and Spec- 
tators and Johnsons were laid aside; Walter Scott, Words- 
worth, Miss Edgeworth, and Byron were read by every 
one. 

Otis was not literary in his tastes, during this period 
of his life. Although the first scholar in his class at Har- 
vard, he always loved men so much better than books, 
that he found little time for reading. A passage in one of 
his letters of 1820 to Mrs. Otis indicates his taste in 
literature, and will probably strike a sympathetic chord 
in most modern readers: 

I have employed myself in reading two volumes of the 
memoirs of the Margravine of Bareith sister of Frederick 2d, 
which, as far as I have gone, ... is more interesting than any 
romance I have ever read. I advise you to enquire for it. It 
contains nothing which a married lady may not be known to 
have read. ... I worried thro' the Abbot, as I began it with 
Gorharn. As illustrating an incident in the life of poor Mary 
Stuart not generally known (supposing it to be founded 
on fact,) it is worth reading, but I think little of it as a 
romance. 

Otis was greatly interested, however, in promoting 
literary activity in his native town, and he aided one 
important phase of it, the founding of libraries, literary 
clubs, and magazines. Two Social Law Libraries were 
founded in 1806, the Theological Library in 1807, and in 
the same year the Boston Athenaeum, of which Otis was 
one of the earliest trustees. One of his younger friends 



246 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

was William Tudor, 8 the leader in this early literary move- 
ment in Boston, and skilled in many other activities as 
well. Tudor founded, in 1805, the Literary Anthology 
Club, which published the Monthly Anthology, one of the 
earliest American literary magazines. 

In the period of financial distress incident to Jeffer- 
son's Embargo and the War of 1812, the new movement 
was retarded; and the Monthly Anthology brought to an 
untimely end. After the peace of 1815, William Tudor 
and his friends took up their work with fresh zeal, and 
founded the North American Review on the ruins of the 
Anthology. Otis's interest in this new enterprise is shown 
by the following letter from him to Robert Goodloe 
Harper, dated May 31, 1816. 

My Dear Sir 

I transmit to you a subscription paper for the N American 
review. The work has hitherto been conducted in a mode quite 
satisfactory to the subscribers. The Editor William Tudor 
Esquire is a gentleman of highly respectable talents & prin- 
ciples and it is believed that with the encouragement of a small 
additional patronage, the work will be found deserving of a dis- 
tinguished rank in the literary annals of our Country. If with- 
out too much trouble you can procure a few names, you will 
promote the cause of literature. 

A letter from William Tudor to Otis, dated September 
2, 1815, is interesting in this connection, as showing in 
its beginning the movement that led to the Boston Mu- 
seum of Fine Arts, as well as the writer's aspirations 
for the literary and artistic preeminence of his native 
city: 

8 William Tudor (1779-1830; Harvard, 1796) engaged in commerce; made 
the grand tour; helped his brother establish the ice trade with India; wrote the 
Life of James Otis, Letters on the Eastern States, and many other works; was 
joint author of the first Boston city charter; and served as State Representa- 
tive and minister to Brazil. 



LITERATURE 247 

My Dear Sir, 

A few individuals, (Dr. Warren, I. P. Davis, S. Wells, T. 
Lyman, D. Sears jr. R. Sullivan, C. Codman &c) have met 
together once or twice to talk over the possibility of getting up 
an institution, for the Fine Arts, the enclosed is a hasty first 
sketch of the paper that was drawn up to form the heading of 
a subscription paper, & enclose it to you for your perusal, and 
to draw your pen across what you may think too broad, or if 
there [are] any other ideas will you suggest them. If certain 
men could be induced to put their hands in their pockets, 
30,000 Dolls, might be raised without inconvenience. The 
interest of the sum would at once enable us to make a very great 
shew in two years it would give us copies of all the casts in the 
Louvre, and some paintings. The income arising from such an 
exhibition would pay for its charges, and we should have after 
the first two years 2000 $ to give away to artists, this sum would 
be a sufficient inducement to bring Allston, Morse & one or two 
other young men here, and would give us the start of New York 
& Philadelphia, and strange as it may seem, yet so far as my 
recollection goes we should have a more complete collection, 
than any permanent, public collection that I know of in London. 

Some of the inducements mentioned in the paper** as you 
well know cannot weigh with me "per la mia disgracia." but 
others do. I wish most heartily the prosperity of the town, and 
the enlargement of polished society in it. I have heard a good 
deal of talk this summer, from the circumstances of my resi- 
dence, among southern people & foreigners, and the general 
opinion of all these people was that Boston does & must decline, 
that New York, Baltimore, & Philadelphia must run away with 
our population & capital. This I do not believe but I believe 
that exertion is at this time very necessary to secure our stand- 
ing & future increase. They are straining every nerve in Phila. 
& Bait, in rivalship, so in New York. The object here contem- 
plated, may with a bold effort at first, go at once beyond them, 
and will produce permanent advantages. If we can make our- 
selves the capital of the arts & sciences, and we have already 
so many powerful institutions that we may do it, our town will 
increase in that sort of society which is principally to be de- 
sired. I think the present state of Europe, will drive many to 
this country. Other events may happen which will keep up the 



248 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

emigration from England of persons who are not mere laborers 
& mechanics. An object of this kind trifling as it may be in 
reality will tend more than ten times the sum employed in any 
other way to give us our share of this increase of population. 

Between four and five thousand dollars were raised for 
the proposed art collection, but the project languished 
until 1826, when the Athenaeum threw open the first art 
exhibition ever held in Boston, a collection of casts that 
in after years formed the nucleus of the Boston Museum 
of Fine Arts. 

Otis's eloquence was the most conspicuous of his varied 
talents; and made him famous in a period of eminent 
orators. Down to the last half-century, oratory was one 
of the most potent forces in moulding public opinion and 
in arousing popular enthusiasm in America. Since then 
our susceptibility to the power of human speech has 
gradually declined, and with this loss has come a deter- 
ioration in the quality of our oratory. Fisher Ames, draw- 
ing tears from Judge Iredell and John Adams by his 
remarkable speech on Jay's treaty, makes a picture now 
hard to imagine. Yet that power then existed, and Otis 
possessed it to the fullest degree. We have already seen 
what a prodigious sensation was produced by his first 
public speech of importance, that on Jay's treaty. With 
the growing years his mastery of the art increased, until 
he became the favorite spokesman of Boston town meet- 
ings, and in Judge Story's opinion, the best popular orator 
in the country. 9 Not only to the cultured, but to all 
classes of people, his word was an electric impulse. It 
used to be said that Otis excited his Faneuil Hall audi- 
ences to such a degree that had he called on the people to 
follow him to burn the town, they would have obeyed. 

9 Francis Bassett, Reminiscences (1871), 8. 



ORATORY 249 

Contemporaries all speak of his "voice of silvery sweet- 
ness," so modulated as to express every emotion, of his 
fine features and graceful gestures, of his self-possession 
and tact. The same personality that won him friends, 
charmed his audiences. The qualities in his speaking 
which most impressed his hearers were the spontaneity, 
the lack of effort, the richness of his vocabulary, and the 
happy choice of his words. Take this sentence as an 
example, from his speech in Faneuil Hall after Hull's 
surrender in 1812: 

Our political orb has almost completed its revolution; it is 
about to set in the cold and dreary regions of Canada, where 
night and chaos will brood over the last of desolated republics. 

No sentence could better express the sentiment of 
gloom, disaster, and of grim foreboding with which 
the Federal party regarded the second war with Eng- 
land. 

Otis had neither the marvelous intellect and force of 
Webster, nor the keen reasoning powers of Dexter ; but 
he surpassed even the former in the power of felicitous 
and spontaneous expression. He was once seated on the 
platform in Faneuil Hall when Webster, speaking in 
favor of the Maysville Road Bill, remarked, in the course 
of his speech, "I am in favor, Mr. Chairman, of all roads, 
except . . . except . . ." Here he stuck fast for a word, 
until Otis, who sat near, whispered "The road to ruin!" 
Webster adopted the suggestion, and inserted Otis's 
happy phrase as if he had merely paused to make it more 
effective. 

Of this same felicity of expression, Mr. Muzzey 
gives in his Reminiscences another example, — one of the 
best descriptions of Otis's oratory that has come down 
to us : 



250 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

Harrison Gray Otis was, in the year 1828, a candidate for 
the mayoralty of Boston. The election being on Monday, as 
was the custom a caucus was held on the Sunday evening pre- 
vious. Hon. Josiah Quincy was the opposing candidate. Two 
men of such ability drew a crowded audience. I regarded it as 
a feast to listen to both of them on the same occasion. Mr. Otis 
speaks first. His personal appearance is most striking: a large 
frame, tall, and well proportioned, with a bearing dignified and 
courteous, a true "gentleman of the old school," — his com- 
plexion florid, with bright eyes, and a pleasing and gracious 
expression, he prepossesses general favor as he rises from his 
seat. This effect is enhanced by a voice mellow, flexible, and 
admirably modulated. His gesticulation is graceful, his whole 
manner persuasive. He is, in fine, of the Ciceronian school, 
that of the consummate orator. 

As he unfolds the policy he shall pursue, if elected, it is evi- 
dent that he strikes the right key for success. He is applauded 
at frequent intervals, and resumes his seat amid deafening 
cheers. It is a trying moment for Mr. Quincy; there are few 
men who could follow such an effort entirely at their ease. 
Mr. Quincy, — a manly and noble figure, ... on almost any 
other occasion would at once have borne the palm over the 
ablest competitor. But, with a constitutional hesitancy of 
speech, he feels, it is manifest, an unusual embarassment. Mr. 
Otis, seeing clearly what he is attempting to utter, rises, and in 
a few flowing periods, gives an eloquent expression to the 
thought of his rival. The effect is electric. His noble magna- 
nimity brings out cheer upon cheer; and it is followed by a 
speech from Mr. Quincy, comprehensive, logical, worthy of the 
man and of the occasion. 

The most famous of Otis's formal orations was his 
eulogy on Alexander Hamilton, pronounced at King's 
Chapel, Boston, on July 26, 1804. Although the only one 
of his speeches to be published in a collection of American 
orations, it is far from being his most effective utterance. 
It opens with a turgid apostrophe to "insatiable death," 
but the remainder, a somewhat dry outline of Hamilton's 
career, errs rather on the side of simplicity. To a Demo- 



ORATORY 251 

crat, Otis seemed "the least objectionable of these eulo- 
gists, because the least false and fulsome; " 10 in the opin- 
ion of many Federalists, he did not do his subject justice. 
Otis was never at his best in formal orations. His pecu- 
liar power was extemporaneous; the swift give and take 
of the Bar and the public forum. Almost any one of his 
speeches in Congress, even in the imperfect record of the 
Annals, is "good reading." 

The literary productions of Otis likewise show this dif- 
ference. His Letters in Defence of the Hartford Convention, 
the most careful of his works, are dull, and bombastic in 
manner, but his published Letter to William Heath, his 
"Envoy" letters of 1799, and the off-hand productions 
of his later years, are lucid and to the point. Of the style 
of his letters, which are all unstudied productions, the 
reader has already had ample opportunity to judge. It is 
unpretentious, sometimes careless, but always clear, easy, 
and without the slightest trace of pose or cant, — in a 
word, an admirable expression of his genial and lovable 
character. In writing, as in speaking, he excelled when 
unconscious of making any effort. 

When over seventy years of age, long after he had 
retired from active practice of the law, Otis once argued 
a case of his own, involving the title to his Beacon Hill 
property. The argument of their aged colleague was a 
revelation to the young lawyers present, one of whom 
describes it as follows: 

It was something unlike in kind to anything else I ever heard. 
The winning music of his voice made the hearer reluctant to 
lose a word; the flow of his language, which was as charmingly 
constructed and cadenced as if it had all been carefully written 
by a practiced writer; and the persuasive logic, which led you 
along almost unconsciously until you stood in the very position 

10 "Anthony Pasquin," The Hamiltoniad (Boston, 1804), 20. 



252 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

in which he would place you, — in each and all of these he was 
unrivalled. And to all these was added their strongest charm, 
perhaps, in the apparent spontaneity of it all. There was no 
effort, no appearance of saying or doing anything in any way 
which did not come of itself. And I believed then, and I believe 
now, that this was not apparent only, but real. He had, if ever 
man had, the gift of eloquence. And all, — grace of delivery, 
sweetness of tone, beauty of illustration, perfect taste in words, 
and rapidity and clearness of thought, — all blended into one, 
flowed on like a river, and the hearer was borne along upon the 
rapid stream, not conscious of its power, and not resisting it. 

This may seem, and may be, the extravagant picture of a 
laudator temporis acti. Let me state, however, that by my side 
there sat a gentleman who had not reached his own foremost 
place in our profession without knowing as well as any one what 
were the elements of successful speech, — I hope I do not offend 
against social courtesies when I name Judge Fletcher, — and 
he turned to me, as Mr. Otis closed, with the whispered remark : 
"There is nothing like this now." u 

The life of Harrison Gray Otis cannot be told without 
a word concerning his long and intimate relations with 
his Alma Mater. As President of the Senate of Massa- 
chusetts, he was partly responsible — chiefly responsible, 
some have said — for the Act of 1810, altering the com- 
position of the Board of Overseers, membership in which 
had formerly been an ex officio right of certain state offi- 
cials and local churches. It was thought desirable by the 
alumni to make the board both elective and secular, and 
they brought about this change through the Act of 1810, 
reducing the number of ex officio seats from over fifty to 
six, and providing for the election by the alumni of fif- 
teen laymen and fifteen Congregational ministers. Otis 
was chosen a member of the first board elected under 
this act. Since the law was a Federalist measure, and 
the newly elected board was composed almost entirely of 

11 T. Parsons, Parsons, 183. 



HARVARD COLLEGE 253 

Federalist politicians, it was made a point of attack by the 
Democratic party, and repealed during the second admin- 
istration of Governor Gerry, in 1812, but reenacted when 
the Federalists returned to power in 1814. Otis, to whom 
the degree of Doctor of Laws was given that year, served 
as Overseer until 1825, and was also a Fellow of the Cor- 
poration from 1823 to 1825. But his relations to the Uni- 
versity were not merely official. He acted as a father to 
numerous Harvard students coming from a distance,who 
were recommended to his care by his friends in the South- 
ern and Middle States. John Rutledge, for example, 
writes him from Charleston on January 19, 1808: 

My dear friend, 

I enclose you a draft on Robt Lenox for the use of my Son. 
That he may learn to keep his own accounts, & have no excuse 
for incurring any Debts, I wish my good friend that you would 
pay him monthly Fifty Dollars, or, if it would be more agreeable 
to him, one hundred & fifty once in three months. With a due 
regard to economy (which I hope he will observe) Six hundred 
Dollars a year will be a sufficient allowance during his residence 
at Cambridge. 

March 26, 1809: 

I enclose a Bill of Exchange for the use of my Boys. Pray 
my dr friend, discourage as much as possible their visiting Bos- 
ton, frequenting Taverns, driving carriages &c &c. It is using 
a great freedom I know to draw upon your Charities in this 
way — I also know it is not "Othelo's occupation" to be lec- 
turing & ordering Boys. I know how much, & how well, " he 
serves the state"; but my friend unless you have the goodness 
& humility to condescend to advise these fellows, &, by your 
parental attentions, give some correction to their aberations, 
I fear that the objects of their residence at Cambridge will not 
be realized. John writes to me of the brilliance of Mrs Apthorpes 
Ball, Mrs Otis's Parties, &c. This is all wrong, & these Boys 
must not be permitted to have any engagements but with their 
Books. 



254 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

The undergraduates of Harvard during the early part 
of the nineteenth century were wont to express their dis- 
approval of existing conditions by the modern methods 
of strike, boycott, and sabotage. In 1805 occurred the 
famous "Bread and Butter Rebellion." As a protest 
against the quality of food provided by the College, the 
student body refused for ten successive days to attend 
Commons. The college authorities then suspended regu- 
lar exercises, and threatened a general lockout; but Otis 
and Samuel Dexter interposed, and succeeded in restor- 
ing peace through arbitration. 

Otis's son William was a ringleader in another student 
uprising of 1818, the so-called "Great Rebellion," which 
was caused by an attempt of the faculty to enforce disci- 
pline, after all the college crockery had been broken dur- 
ing a glorious battle in Commons between freshmen and 
sophomores. Young Otis, together with George Wash- 
ington Adams and Josiah Quincy, Jr., stimulated perhaps 
by the historic names they bore, then rallied the sopho- 
more class around the Rebellion Tree in front of Hollis, 
as a protest against the faculty's tyranny. President 
Kirkland summoned them into his presence, and warned 
them against returning to the tree — which they promptly 
did. Finally, writes Josiah Quincy, Jr., this "burlesque 
of patriots struggling with tyrants " played itself out, and 
ended with several rustications and suspensions. Harri- 
son Gray Otis was absent in Washington at the time, but 
his son was saved from serious punishment by the inter- 
position of his elder brother Harry, of the class of 1811. 
Their father wrote their mother on November 22, 1818: 

I presume order is restored at Harvard. Old Mr Adams mis- 
takes the genius of the age, to tell of whipping and to practice 
scolding. The principles of Government in States & Families 
are changed. The understanding and the heart must be ad- 



HARVARD COLLEGE 255 

dressed by persuasion and reason, & the bayonet and rod re- 
served for the last emergency. A boy of 18 for all the purposes 
of Government, is as much a man as he ever will be. He needs 
advice constantly, and sometimes must be punished by priva- 
tions of the objects of his desire or pursuit. 

After another student insurrection in 1823, when Otis 
was both Fellow and Overseer, it became evident that 
something serious was the matter. Harvard College had, 
in fact, fallen into a rut, and was standing still while the 
world of learning advanced. It had become a paradise for 
loafers and for the type of young men then called " bloods," 
now known as "sports." Instruction was a matter of 
going through the motions, the curriculum had been un- 
changed for years, and no encouragement was given to 
the serious or the advanced student. Professor George 
Ticknor, fresh from study at the great universities of Ger- 
many, perceived these defects, and prescribed remedies 
which, with the cooperation of the Fellows and Overseers, 
but against strong opposition from the faculty and con- 
servative alumni, were partially carried out in the year 
1825. 12 Their adoption was one of the most important 
of those steps by which Harvard emerged from an inef- 
ficient provincial high school, and became a university in 
the true sense of the word. 

When Harvard celebrated her second centennial, on 
September 8, 1836, Harrison Gray Otis was elected 
President of the Day by the alumni, but was prevented 
from exercising this high function by the sudden death of 
Mrs. Otis. His life and character were made the subject 

12 Life, etc., of George Ticknor, i, chap. xvm. The changes effected were, 
in brief, the establishment of a tribunal of three for cases of discipline, the 
abolition of the long winter vacation in favor of one in the summer (the period 
at which most of the "insurrections" had taken place), greater strictness in 
examinations, greater supervision over teachers, and an entering wedge of the 
lecture and elective systems. 



256 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

of a centennial oration by William Howard Gardiner, of 
the class of 1816. Mr. Gardiner ended his eulogy of the 
distinguished old graduate with the following toast, than 
which none was drunk more heartily on that great day: 

Harrison Gray Otis: the first scholar of the first class of a 
new nation; the career of his life has been according to the 
promise of his youth; he has touched nothing which he has not 
adorned; he has been rewarded with no office, nor honor, nor 
emolument, to which he was not richly entitled; and, in the 
dignified retirement of declining years, he must always possess, 
not the least enviable, perhaps, of the blessings which may ac- 
company old age, — one which will dwell with him through 
life, and follow him beyond the grave, — the kind remembrance 
and most respectful consideration of the Alumni of Harvard. 



CHAPTER XV 

CALM, CONSPIRACY, AND THE CHESAPEAKE AFFAIR 

1801-1807, as. 36-42 

After the election of Jefferson came a brief breathing 
space in American politics. The European truce suspended 
the grave questions of foreign policy which had convulsed 
the country for the past seven years, and removed the 
principal cause for dissension between Federalists and 
Republicans. Jefferson governed with a moderation that 
vexed many of his old friends, and made new friends in 
the ranks of his former enemies. Federalist leaders in 
vain sounded the note of alarm at the infiltration of "dis- 
organizing principles." The people were tired of politics; 
they approved Jefferson's policy of retrenchment; they 
saw no reason for change. 

Harrison Gray Otis began the second and most charac- 
teristic portion of his political career at the beginning of 
this period, in 1802, when he accepted an election to the 
"Boston Seat" in the Massachusetts House of Represen- 
tatives. For the next fifteen years he was a member of 
one branch or the other of the General Court, and during 
six of them was either Speaker of the House or President 
of the Senate. 1 Throughout these years Otis was the 
most popular, though not the most powerful, leader of the 
Federal party in Massachusetts. The Essex Junto, dis- 
trusting him on account of his refusal to take part in the 

1 From 1802 to 1805 in the House of Representatives, and Speaker the last 
two years; from 1805 to 1813 in the Senate.and its President, 1805-06 and 1808- 
11; again in the House, 1813-14, and once more in the Senate, 1814-17. The 
political year began on the last Wednesday in May. 



258 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

intrigue of 1800 against Adams, never, it seems, admitted 
him to their secret councils; but he frequently acted in 
concert with them, and always led in whatever branch of 
the Legislature he happened to be. 

In the political revolution of 1800, Massachusetts 
almost slipped through the fingers of the Federal party. 
Their candidate for governor, Caleb Strong, was elected 
by a narrow majority in 1800, and Boston went Demo- 
cratic in that and the following year. Once the crisis 
passed, however, the Federal party slowly regained con- 
trol. Governor Strong was annually reelected by an ever- 
increasing majority, and Boston never again deserted the 
Federal party as long as it existed. This recovery in 1802 
should not be interpreted as a reaction against Jefferson- 
ianism, but as a popular approval of a' moderate and ef- 
ficient administration. Caleb Strong, an honest and un- 
spectacular governor, was tolerant in his Federalism, and 
exercised a calming influence on party politics. He made 
a laudable effort to exclude national issues from state 
politics by frequently reminding the General Court that 
the national government alone possessed authority over 
foreign affairs. 

Under Strong's guidance, the General Court turned its 
attention chiefly to internal reforms and to projects of 
commercial development. In 1802, the year that Otis 
reentered state politics, the penitentiary system was 
instituted, and the application of capital punishment 
restricted. The principal reforms between 1803 and 1805 
related to the judiciary — a department much in need of 
reorganization. Even with far more courts and judges 
than were necessary, the division of labor between them 
was so unequal, the circuits so clumsily arranged, the 
procedure so complicated, that the delay and the cost of 
justice had become serious burdens. The first reforming 



CALM, CONSPIRACY, CHESAPEAKE AFFAIR 259 

impulse came from the bench itself, which seems to have 
had a most creditable conception of its functions, and of 
the proper relations between judiciary and people. Judge 
Theodore Sedgwick, of the Supreme Judicial Court, writes 
Otis, February 7, 1803: 

The absolute and uncontrouled independence, of any branch 
of the judiciary, tends to the establishment of a judicial despot- 
ism; and if there has hitherto been no appearance of it, in this 
state, we are more than indebted to the peculiar mildness of 
temper, and politeness of manners of the gentlemen who com- 
posed the courts, than to the wisdom of the system. 

In another letter to Otis, he calls the Massachusetts 
judiciary "the most barbarous and absurd that was ever 
endured by a enlightened people." Evidently the judges 
of that day were under no illusions as to the inviolability 
of their privileges and functions. 2 

Although the Massachusetts Bar as a whole opposed 
any change in a system so profitable to it, Otis gave the 
exponents of reform all possible aid. The existing corres- 
pondence between him and Judge Sedgwick suggests 
that they two were in a large degree responsible for what- 
ever was effected in that direction. A beginning was made 
in 1803, by depriving the county courts of session, com- 
posed of justices of the peace, of criminal jurisdiction. 
The ideas of Otis and the judges themselves were then 
substantially adopted in two acts, of February 29, 1804, 
and of March 15, 1805, in which nisi prius sessions of one 
or more judges of the Supreme Court were established, in 

2 Theophilus Parsons, Jr., wrote of his father, the Chief Justice: "I believe 
there was nothing which my father more desired than that the people should 
cultivate in themselves a kind and respectful, but watchful jealousy of the 
judicial department; and should feel a deep and sincere, and yet a rational 
respect for it, founded upon a just understanding of the vast importance of its 
functions." Life of Parsons, 199. 



260 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

addition to the regular sessions of three or more. One 
judge alone could exercise jurisdiction over all questions 
"whereof the Supreme Judicial Court hath hitherto had 
cognizance," excepting capital offenses, divorce, and ali- 
mony. Regular circuits were rearranged, in order to expe- 
dite matters; the Supreme Judicial Court was reduced 
from six to five members, and the judges for the first time 
were given a fixed compensation instead of annual grants. 
Theophilus Parsons, who was appointed to the vacant 
chief -justiceship in 1806, proved most efficient in enforc- 
ing the spirit of reform. 

Legislative action was necessary, also, to improve the 
banking facilities of Boston, which the expansion of com- 
merce, in these years of peace, had rendered inadequate. 
John Quincy Adams records in his diary a project of 
special interest to Otis, the Boston Bank, which he desired 
to get through the Senate as quietly as possible. The bill 
provided that no one could own more than fifty shares of 
stock, except the original proprietors, "about twenty 
gentlemen," including Otis, who could own up to two 
thousand shares apiece. Otis did not wish to have the 
subscription paper made public, and to have his name 
"bandied about" the legislature. John Quincy Adams, 
who already looked on Otis with the suspicion of one 
temperamentally his opposite, had heard rumors that 
certain shares were set aside for the purpose of corrupting 
the legislature, and refused to give the bill his support. It 
finally passed, without the neat provision for keeping the 
control in the hands of the original proprietors, and with 
a considerable part of its capital subscribed for by the 
Commonwealth. Several other banking schemes became 
issues in local politics at this time; and throughout the 
period of Federalist rule in Massachusetts the connection 
between the banking interests and the Federal party was 



CALM, CONSPIRACY, CHESAPEAKE AFFAIR 261 

close. 3 Otis' name frequently appeared on boards of 
directors. 

"The federalists must entrench themselves in the State 
governments, and endeavour to make State justice and 
State power a shelter of the wise, and good, and rich, from 
the wild destroying rage of the southern Jacobins." So 
wrote Fisher Ames, of Massachusetts, in the year 1S02, 4 
only three years after he and his party had denounced 
as unconstitutional the attempt of the Virginia and Ken- 
tucky Democrats similarly to protect themselves against 
the Sedition Act. In these words Ames struck the key- 
note of the policy followed for the next twelve years by 
his native state. 

The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 gave the signal for a 
renewal of the old party bitterness, and caused the "wise, 
and good, and rich" of Massachusetts to take their first 
definite step away from nationalism. News of the cession 
of Louisiana reached America late in June, 1803. By the 
Republican newspapers of New England it was received 
as "glorious intelligence"; by the Federalist press, coldly 
and without comment. Although nothing emanating from 
a Jeffersonian administration could expect Federalist 
praise until subjected to the most rigid and critical scru- 
tiny, still there must have been some difficulty at first in 
finding fault with an act which thwarted the steady 
policy of France from 1793 to 1802, and which carried 
out to its logical conclusion the Federalist policy of 1797. 

3 This is a subject that merits a thorough investigation. One frequently 
6nds complaints in Democratic newspapers that Democrats were discriminated 
against by the Boston banks. In 1795, Otis's election to the General Court 
was advocated in the Centinel on the ground that he was a friend to the Union 
Bank. In 1803, the advocates for a new banking scheme founded a party of 
their own, called the " Middling Interest," which was courted by both Federal- 
ists and Republicans. 

* Works, I, 310. 



262 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

Jefferson had acquired peacefully what Hamilton and 
Otis had dreamt of securing through war with France and 
alliance with England. There were, however, just grounds 
for criticism of the Louisiana Purchase. It was by no 
means certain that we had not paid fifteen million dollars 
for a revocable permission from Bonaparte to hold Louisi- 
ana against all comers, if we had the strength. The colony 
had been ceded by Spain to France in 1800, but the trans- 
fer had not yet taken place. France had never paid for the 
territory, and its cession was contrary both to the treaty 
obligations and to the constitution of France. The bound- 
aries on the east and on the west were indefinite. The 
position, then, that we had been cheated at the bargain 
was far from untenable in 1804. 

The real cause of Federalist opposition to the Louisiana 
Purchase lay far deeper than flaws in the title; it was 
based on the realization that the acquisition of this vast 
territory threatened the economic and political interests 
of the Federal party. It would lower the value of Eastern 
lands, in which Otis and many other Federalist leaders 
were interested. 5 It would bolster up Jeffersonian Democ- 
racy to the westward, and keep Federalism in a perpetual 
minority. The Eastern leaders 6 were already conscious 
of the lack of expansive force in their party, which by 
1804 existed only as a sickly exotic in the West. Ohio, in 
spite of the fact that a considerable element of her popu- 
lation was from New England, had just entered the 
Union with a constitution embodying the most advanced 

5 "The men naturally destined to populate the District of Maine, the vacant 
lands of New Hampshire, and Vermont will be enticed to the new paradise of 
Louisiana ..." — A Defense of the Legislature of Massachusetts, or the Rights of 
Neivengland Vindicated (1804), p. 13. 

6 Southern, as well as New England Federalists were strongly opposed to 
the Louisiana Purchase, but, not having control of their state legislatures, they 
were not able to express their objections so effectively. See John Rutledge's 
letter of October 1, 1803, at end of chapter. 



CALM, CONSPIRACY, CHESAPEAKE AFFAIR 263 

ideas of Democracy, and looked to Virginia, not to 
Massachusetts, for leadership. It was practically certain 
that the new states to be formed from Louisiana would 
manifest the same spirit. "Virginia will soon become the 
Austria of America," wrote a Federalist pamphleteer. 7 

Future prospects for the New England Federalists, 
with their peculiar economic interests, were rendered the 
more alarming by the expectation that the new trans- 
Mississippi states would be slave-holding, and send Rep- 
resentatives to Washington according to the federal ratio. 
The constitutional provision by which Representatives 
and presidential electors were allotted to the states in 
proportion to the free population plus three fifths of "all 
other persons," had long been a rankling sore to New 
England Federalists. It gave Virginia, a state with a free 
population slightly less than that of Massachusetts, five 
more Representatives and electoral votes ; it alone secured 
the election of Jefferson in 1800. Hence arose the proposi- 
tion to abolish by constitutional amendment the slave 
representation. An amendment to this effect was intro- 
duced in the Massachusetts House of Representatives 
by William Ely of Springfield, and passed June 20, 1804, 
by a strict party vote. Otis was then Speaker of the 
House, and no doubt gave the amendment his full ap- 
proval. The resolution, commenting upon the unjust and 
injurious provision in the Constitution by which "a plan- 
ter with fifty slaves has thirty votes," states that the 
purchase of Louisiana makes these provisions more in- 
jurious, and " will contribute ... to destroy the real 
influence of the Eastern states in the National Govern- 
ment," and whereas, a Union of the States 
cannot harmoniously exist, for a long period, unless it be 

7 Defense of the Legislature of Mass., 14. Cf. H. C. Hockett, " Federalism and 
the West " {Turner Essays, no. v.). 



264 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

founded in principles which shall secure to all Free Citizens, 
equal political rights and privileges in the government, so 
that a minority of Free Citizens may not govern a majority, 
an event which, on the principles of representation now es- 
tablished has already happened, and may always happen. 
Therefore, to preserve the Union of the States upon sound and 
just principles, and to establish a foundation for general har- 
mony, and confidence among all the citizens of the United 
States, by securing to them now, and at all future periods, equal 
political rights and privileges, 

Resolved, that representatives and direct taxes be hence- 
forth apportioned on the basis of free population only. 

With this language of menace to the Union, suggestive 
of the tone in which the South, at a later period, was 
accustomed to demand extensions of slavery, Massachu- 
setts entered the road of sectionalism that she followed for 
the next ten years. Striking, as it did, at one of the "sacred 
compromises" of the Constitution, Ely's amendment was 
about as reasonable as would have been a proposition of 
Virginia to deprive the smaller states of their equality in 
the Senate. Massachusetts was very properly rebuked by 
the rejection of the amendment by every state in the 
Union, with the exception of Connecticut and Delaware, 
which took no action; but her leaders, not abandoning all 
hope, revived a similar proposition in the Report of the 
Hartford Convention. 

While the legislature of Massachusetts was contem- 
plating this initial step in sectionalism, the extremist 
leaders of the Federal party, boldly spanning the succes- 
sive stages of state rights, were secretly planning for New 
England the final resort of oppressed sectional minorities 
— secession from the Union. The conspiracy 8 originated 

8 The sources for this episode are the correspondence in the Pickering MSS. 
(printed, together with the pamphlets of the later Otis-Adams controversy, in 
Henry Adams, Documents relating to New England Federalism); extracts from 
letters and memoranda of William Plumer in his Life, by William Plumer, Jr., 



CALM, CONSPIRACY, CHESAPEAKE AFFAIR 265 

with the extreme New England Federalists in Congress, 
of whom Timothy Pickering, Uriah Tracy, and Roger 
Griswold were the leaders. These — and the same might 
be said of the Essex Junto, of Gouverneur Morris, of the 
leading Connecticut Federalists — were men of one idea 
and one object: to suppress democracy. Their political 
theories were founded on the fallacy that the masses in 
America had the same passions as the Paris mob. Democ- 
racy to them meant atheism, destruction of property, and 
mob rule. "The principles of democracy are everywhere 
what they have been in France," wrote Fisher Ames in 
1803. "The fire of revolution . . . when once kindled, 
would burrow deep into the soil, search out and consume 
the roots, and leave, after one crop, a caput mortuum, black 
and barren, for ages. . . . Our country is too big for union, 
too sordid for patriotism, too democratic for liberty." 
Looking on current events from this standpoint, radical 
Federalists saw in Jefferson's attacks on the judiciary, 
his removals in the civil service, the adoption of the 
Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution, and the an- 
nexation of Louisiana, a prelude to universal chaos. "My 
life is not worth much," wrote Pickering, "but if it must 
be offered up, let it be in the hope of obtaining a more 
stable government, under which my children, at least, 
may enjoy freedom with security." 

The South, they observed, and to a certain extent the 
Middle States, were already violated by democracy; New 
England was yet chaste — but every day Pickering and 
men of like mind saw new barriers to her virtue pros- 
trated. "And must we with folded hands wait the result? 
. . . The principles of our Resolution point to the remedy 

chap, vn; and correspondence of Rufus King in King, in, chap. xxn. Henry 
Adams's description of the plot in his United States, n, chap, vin, is a master- 
piece of historical writing. 



J 



266 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

— a separation." In their minds arose the picture of 
"a new confederacy, exempt from the corrupt and cor- 
rupting influence and oppression of the aristocratic Dem- 
ocrats of the South," a confederacy with New England as 
its nucleus, the British provinces as free willing adherents, 
and New York, to be brought in by the influence of Aaron 
Burr, as a western barrier against Virginia, the source of 
corruption. Much as her leaders wished the South to 
secede in 1861, in order to exclude the poison of abolition, 
Pickering and his friends wished New England to secede 
in 1804, in order to exclude the poison of democracy — 
each assuming that a frontier line could stop a world 
force. 

This wild and visionary scheme was cautiously broached 
by its authors to the Essex Junto in Massachusetts, and 
to the Federalist leaders in Connecticut and New Y'ork. 
Ames, Cabot, Parsons, and Higginson all replied that 
secession, although desirable, was impossible — there was 
no public sentiment to support it. The people were alto- 
gether too contented and prosperous; only the "wise and 
good" could perceive danger to society and property in 
the annexation of Louisiana. "We should be put in the 
background," wrote Higginson, "were we to make that 
question the subject of free conversation." In Connecti- 
cut, the leaders of Church and State regarded the scheme 
more favorably, and in New York the plot found a leader 
in the person of "The Catiline of America," Aaron Burr. 
His candidacy for the governorship of New Y r ork was sup- 
ported by Griswold and Pickering, with the understand- 
ing that if he won, he should lead the new secession move- 
ment. Burr's defeat at the polls ended all chance of even 
setting the plot in motion. Hamilton had already ex- 
pressed his disapproval of the conspiracy, and done his 
best to effect Burr's defeat. The latter's demand for an 



CALM, CONSPIRACY, CHESAPEAKE AFFAIR 267 

explanation, Hamilton's defiance, and the fatal duel fol- 
lowed in swift succession. On July 11, 1804, Alexander 
Hamilton paid the penalty, on the duelling-grounds of 
Weehawken, for having stood between Aaron Burr and 
the presidency of a Northern Confederacy. 

With this dramatic ending, the disunion conspiracy of 
1804, the first serious plot against the integrity of the 
Union, 9 dissolved. It never had the remotest chance of 
success, and the fact that Pickering, Tracy, and Griswold 
could seriously desire it and seriously believe it practi- 
cable, and above all intrigue with Aaron Burr to carry 
it out, shows how thoroughly devoid they were of polit- 
ical morality, how completely out of touch with public 
opinion, how absolutely incompetent to govern the 
United States. 

Our chief concern in this affair is to find out whether 
Harrison Graj- Otis had any part in it. Otis, as Speaker 
of the House of Representatives of the leading state of 
New England, was the first leader outside the Essex Junto 
to whom the conspirators would naturally turn. John 
Quincy Adams believed that they had enlisted him. In 
the course of the presidential campaign of 1828, in which 

9 As all students of United States history know, secession, even in 1804, was 
no new and unheard-of remedy for oppressed sectional minorities. It was seri- 
ously urged by Rufus King in 1794, by Connecticut leaders in 1796, if Jefferson 
were elected; by John Taylor of Caroline in 1798. It was constantly threatened 
in the West, from 1784 to 1803, if the federal government should not prevent 
the closure of the Mississippi; frequently threatened in the South, between 1795 
and 1799, in the event of a war with France. So far both parties, and all sec- 
tions had been equal offenders, and were likewise in the period 1804-1860, as 
Mr. H. V. Ames's admirable collection of Stale Documents on Federal Relations 
testifies. Most political thinkers of the first half-century of constitutional gov- 
ernment had very little faith in the duration of the Union, and the statement, 
that such-and-such a measure would "inevitably produce a dissolution of the 
Union," was a familiar figure of speech in politics. The conspiracy of 1804 was, 
so far as is known, the first actual attempt to carry secession into effect; but it 
may well be that others fully as serious previously existed, but have never seen 
the light. 



268 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

he was a candidate, Adams published a statement to the 
effect that the object of the Federalist leaders "was [in 
1808], and had been for several years, a dissolution of the 
Union." He was promptly called to account by Harrison 
Gray Otis and twelve other survivors of the Federal 
party. They challenged him to publish the evidence of 
such a design, and to name the leaders. Adams replied 
shortly, citing the main facts of the 1804 disunion scheme 
correctly, but refusing to give any names. This was the 
first time that the plot had been made public. Otis and 
his twelve "compurgators," as Adams called them, then 
published an " Appeal to the citizens of the United States," 
— composed in all probability by Otis, — in which they 
"solemnly disavow all knowledge of such a project, and 
all remembrance of the mention of it, or of any plan 
analogous to it, at that or any subsequent period." They 
further stated their belief that no such plan existed. 

Otis, then, clearly and unequivocally stated in 1829 
that he had not so much as heard of the 1804 plot until 
1828. His statement was undoubtedly correct. 10 Adams 
himself, in the lengthy reply which he prepared to the 
"Appeal," acknowledges that the 1804 project was "in 
its nature secret," and admits "Mr. Otis is not one of 
those whom I ever heard or believed to have been engaged 
in the project of 1804." Pickering's correspondence shows 
that the plan was never communicated to any one in 
Massachusetts outside the exclusive circle of the Junto — 

10 Mr. McMaster assumes, I think without foundation, that the Ely amend- 
ment was a corollary to the disunion scheme. (United States, in, 47.) He points 
out (p. 51) three toasts at the Christopher Gore dinner of April 27, 1804, as 
indicating a general knowledge of the plot among Federalists. Of these the 
only one which seems to contain a disunion sentiment was " May the dominion 
of Virginia be limited by the Constitution, or at least by the Delaware," and 
these words may have been intended simply to express a wish that the Federal 
party should retain control of the state governments in that region. There is no 
doubt, however, that secession sentiment existed in Federalist circles that were 
ignorant of any settled plan with that end in view. 



CALM, CONSPIRACY, CHESAPEAKE AFFAIR 269 

Adams only learned of it by accident. To Otis and 
his twelve fellow signers, in 1828, the announcement 
that such a plot existed was a complete surprise, and 
their disbelief in the story, under the circumstances, was 
natural. 11 

Harrison Gray Otis, then, had no connection with the 
1804 project of a Northern Confederacy. But one ques- 
tion remains to be answered. Was this plot of 1804 an 
isolated affair, ending with the defeat of Burr and the 
death of Hamilton, or was it, as John Quincy Adams be- 
lieved, the alpha to a carefully laid scheme of disunion, to 
which the Hartford Convention was intended to be the 
omega? The mere existence, he considered, of a disunion 
plot in 1804 was sufficient evidence that disunion was the 
object of the sectional movements in New England from 
1808 to 1815. 12 That reasoning does not commend itself 
to the interests of historical accuracy. The secession 
movement of 1804 was a select conspiracy, confined to a 
handful of extremist leaders; the movements of 1808 and 
1814 were entered into by the entire Federal party in New 

11 William Plumer, one of the conspirators of 1804, and later an apostate to 
Federalism, supported Adams's statement in a letter which was published early 
in 1829. (Life of William Plumer, 290.) The truth of his statements was im- 
pugned by a number of the 1804 Connecticut members of Congress, who had 
not been let into the secret (N.E. Federalism, no. ix), and Otis therefore con- 
sidered them false. See his letter of March 5, 1829, to Judge Hopkinson, in 
appendix to chapter xxxi. Timothy Pickering, the other surviving conspirator, 
kept a complete silence during the controversy. The existence of the 1804 plot 
was not established beyond the possibility of doubt until 1857, when part of 
William Plumer's correspondence of 1804 was published in his Life, by William 
Plumer, Jr. 

12 Mr. Henry Adams assumes (United States, vm, 225), that a New England 
convention, similar to that of 1814, formed part of the plans of 1804. But 
William Plumer distinctly states that the plot was to be carried out by indi- 
vidual secessions of states, beginning with Massachusetts. (Life of Plumer, 291, 
295-96.) In none of the correspondence of that year is there any mention of an 
interstate convention. Definite measures were to have been decided upon at 
a meeting of leaders in Boston, which, owing to Hamilton's death, never took 
place. 



270 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

England, and their object was not disunion, but, in the 
one case, relief from the embargo, and in the other, peace 
and protection to New England interests. Pickering, in- 
deed, attempted to steer the Hartford Convention into a 
disunion course, but failed. The conspiracy of 1804 was 
an isolated affair, the real significance of which is personal 
— the example it offers of the manner in which poli- 
tical Jesuits throw aside every scruple to attain their 
ends. 

The subsequent course of events in Massachusetts 
showed how visionary was the idea of stirring up disloy- 
alty to the Union in that state. The Federal party made . 
the iniquity of the Louisiana Purchase its leading issue 
in the elections of 1804, but the people were obstinate 
I enough to regard it as a national triumph in which they 
shared. The Democratic vote for governor increased 
seventy-five per cent; not quite sufficient, however, to eat 
away the heavy Federalist majorities of 1803. When the 
presidential election approached, the General Court 
dared not repeat its unpopular strategy of 1800, and 
retain the choice of presidential electors in its own 
hands. Trusting, however, that the slight Federalist 
majority in the spring elections would still remain, it did 
the next best thing, and provided for the choice of electors 
by a general ticket. This "squeamishness," as the Centi- 
nel called it, resulted, to the Federalists' profound aston- 
ishment, in the victory of the Jeffersonian ticket by a 
substantial majority. For the first and the last time Mas- 
sachusetts voted for a President opposed to the Federal 
party. Connecticut and Delaware alone remained faith- 
ful to Federalism; Jefferson was reelected President by 
162 votes out of 176. The Democrats had good reason to 
believe that Federalism was in its death-throes. Accord- 
ing to The Hamiltoniady — 



CALM, CONSPIRACY, CHESAPEAKE AFFAIR 271 

Boston, that royal hot-bed of the States, 
Now sinks in grief — now menaces the Fates : 
Ot-s, mellifluous Ot-s, cannot please: 
His silver accents only charm the Breeze. 

During the next two years, a progressive increase in 
violence was evident in the Massachusetts state elections. 
The Federalists fought to retain their power with all the 
desperation of a dying cause, and the Democrats were 
stimulated to attain a goal that each election seemed to 
bring nearer, but to keep just out of reach. Torrents of 
pamphlets rained from party headquarters, and the past 
records of both gubernatorial candidates were raked with 
a fine comb to discover incidents to their discredit. In 
1806, the Democrats finally secured a majority in the 
General Court. Otis wrote on May 20, in a tone of bitter 
jocularity, to his old friend Robert Goodloe Harper: 

I believe at length c'est une affaire finie with Massachusetts. 
The old Governor is elected, but a systematic plan has been 
adopted by the democratic towns to fill the legislature with their 
complement of members. Our H. of R. will therefore literally 
be a council of 500, and you may expect to see us disgraced by a 
fulsome address to the weakest of possible administrations. If 
Bonaparte had time to examine our affairs with minute atten- 
tion, he would think we were making too much haste; we shall 
be ready for him before he has leisure to take us under his pro- 
tection. Would your Baltimorians vote for Prince Jerome? I 
think however we cannot expect to share the honors of the 
first line of Princes. There is not enough of them to distribute 
among the fallen & falling powers of Europe. A few years will 
produce a new mongrel breed from the German and Italian alli- 
ances, either of wives or mistresses and a few years may prob- 
ably fit America for the sway of any abortion which it may be 
convenient to transport. Till when God bless you. 13 

Otis, who was defeated for the presidency of the Senate 
that year by a majority of one, was, however, instrumental 

" Harper MSS. 



272 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

in preserving the governorship for his party. Returns for 
governor were exceedingly close. Caleb Strong had, ac- 
cording to Federalist calculations, only 176 votes over a 
bare majority of the total vote, which at that time was 
necessary for a choice. The opportunity to defeat him by 
manipulating the returns was too good to be lost. The 
returns were referred for an official count to a joint com- 
mittee of the General Court, composed of five Democrats 
and two Federalists, which proceeded to apply a set of 
rules to fit the object in view. It was found that Gov- 
ernor Strong's name was misspelled in the returns of 
two towns, that of Sullivan in thirty-one. The committee 
adopted the rule that where the spelling conformed to the 
sound of the name, the votes should stand, but not other- 
wise. As the two Strong towns spelt his name Stron and 
Srong, they were thrown out, while most of the Sullivan 
votes were spelled Sulivan or Sullivon, and were therefore 
retained. All rejected votes were counted into the total, in 
order to keep the legal majority, which Strong must sur- 
pass, as high as possible. After deciding every disputed 
point in Sullivan's favor, the committee reported that 
Strong lacked 14 votes of a majority. The Democrats, 
however, did not dare to pull through so barefaced a poli- 
tical steal. A minority report of the Senate, signed by 
Otis and his eighteen Federalist colleagues, punctured the 
committee's report through and through, and gave the 
cue to public opinion, which forced the Democrats to re- 
cede. The House was enabled to back down with grace 
through the "discovery" of a new technicality in the re- 
turns of a Democratic town, which being rejected, gave 
Caleb Strong a majority of 40 votes. He was then de- 
clared elected. 14 

14 These facts are taken from Edward Stan wood, "The Mass. Election in 
1806," (Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc, 2d ser., xx, 12), and the Senate minority pro- 
test, a manuscript copy of which in the Otis MSS. suggests Otis's authorship. 



CALM, CONSPIRACY, CHESAPEAKE AFFAIR 273 

In the following year, 1807, the Democrats finally se- 
cured control of every branch of the state government. 
All signs pointed to the coming disappearance of the Fed- 
eral party. Vermont succumbed the same year; New 
Hampshire and Rhode Island had already yielded; in all 
the United States only hide-bound Connecticut resisted 
the advance of Jeffersonian Democracy. Had the Euro- 
pean peace endured, or had Thomas Jefferson been able to 
cope successfully with a condition of European war, the 
Federal party would in all probability have died out for 
want of an issue, and the " era of good feelings " been 
anticipated by ten years. But the gods willed it that 
no permanent peace could be made between England 
and France, or between Federalists and Republicans in 
America, until Napoleon should conquer the British 
Isles, or be driven into exile. 

In 1804, Europe resolved itself for the third time into 
two great coalitions around England and France as nuclei, 
and Federalists and Republicans resumed their old posi- 
tions on the outer edges of the warring circles. All ques- 
tions not relating to foreign affairs again sink out of sight, 
and as Harper wrote Otis, " The affairs of our own coun- 
try make a sort of underplot, which engages the atten- 
tion only because it is near, and in which the misera- 
ble actors, . . . excite no other emotions than those of 
pity and contempt." 15 Throughout the long struggle 
that ended with Waterloo, the Federalists continued to 
regard England as the " advanced guard of our country," 
the exponent of rational liberty and well-ordered gov- 
ernment; but the Republican party consistently defended 
the cause of Napoleon, while he crushed out republican- 
ism and liberty in one country after another. 

Nine months after Jefferson's second inauguration, 

^ 15 Letters at end of this chapter. 



274 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

England, through Trafalgar, became mistress of the seas 
and Napoleon, through Austerlitz, master of the Conti- 
nent. A deadlock was closed between the two belliger- 
ents, from which either could escape only by prostrating 
the commerce and exhausting the resources of the other. 
As in the first half of the European struggle, each belliger- 
ent conceived it necessary, in carrying out this starvation 
policy, to prevent neutral commerce from trading with 
the other nation; and the era of spoliations, captures, and 
judicial confiscation of American vessels recommenced. 
The situation was difficult for Jefferson to meet. Wash- 
ington and Adams had been confronted by a similar prob- 
lem, but generally in relation to one nation at a time. 
But from 1807 on, both England and Napoleon seemed to 
vie with one another in visiting destruction on American 
commerce and insult on the American people. With the 
American public irrevocably divided in favor of ^England 
and France, the situation was one from which only an 
opportunist statesman of the very highest order, a Crom- 
well or a Cavour, could have drawn success — and Jeffer- 
son was not an opportunist, but a theorist. 

During the first two years of the war, the aggressions 
on America came almost exclusively from Great Britain. 
In 1804, the British navy renewed its practice of impress- 
ing British subjects from American merchant vessels, 
even within the harbor of New York. The following year, 
Sir William Scott, in the case of the American vessel Essex, 
handed down a decision in which he announced the prin- 
ciple of "continuous voyages" — that the carrying of a 
cargo from the French West Indies to the United States, 
there transshipping it and proceeding to France, was in 
effect a continuous voyage between the French colonies 
and France, and as such, contrary to the Rule of 1756. 
This decision cut deep into a lucrative branch of the 



CALM, CONSPIRACY, CHESAPEAKE AFFAIR 275 

American carrying trade. The wise and good of the Essex 
Junto, whose interests were deeply affected, were neverthe- 
less willing to acquiesce, preferring to swallow humbly 
such crumbs of trade as England might graciously permit 
to fall from her table, rather than embarrass her in her 
struggle with Bonaparte, or give Jefferson the least cause 
for interference. But the Federal party as a whole was 
not yet ready to accept this attitude, and in Boston, as in 
other seaport cities, a meeting of Federalist merchants 
drew up a strong memorial to the President, denouncing 
the principles of the Essex decision as "unsound in prin- 
ciple, offensive in practice, and nugatory in effect," and 
praying for measures to "assert our rights, and support 
the dignity of the United States." 

Jefferson responded by following the best Federalist 
precedents, and sending William Pinkney as envoy extra- 
ordinary to England, to join Monroe, the minister resi- 
dent, in an effort to persuade the British government to 
abandon the practice of impressment, and renounce Sir 
William Scott's new theory of neutral trade. They pro- 
cured a treaty, containing terms so humiliating that 
Jefferson refused even to submit it to the Senate for con- 
sideration. 

Unfortunately three of Jefferson's measures the pre- 
vious year had already convinced such moderate Feder- 
alists as were inclined to trust his sincerity, of his subser- 
vience to Napoleon. These were the swift passage of the 
bill appropriating two million dollars for foreign inter- 
course; the act prohibiting trade with insurrectory San 
Domingo, in obedience to peremptory orders from the 
French Government, and the act forbidding the importa- 
tion of British goods. Jefferson's summary rejection of the 
Monroe-Pinkney treaty was, therefore, considered evi- 
dence of a desire to provoke a breach with Great Britain. 



276 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

Three months later occurred an incident that for a few 
brief weeks obliterated party lines in the United States 
and brought forth the only united expression of Ameri- 
can patriotism between the X.Y.Z. disclosures and the 
battle of New Orleans. On June 22, 1807, off Hampton 
Roads, the commander of the British line-of-battle ship 
Leopard held up the American frigate Chesapeake, and 
demanded that certain deserters from the British navy, 
said to be on board, be given up. On being refused, he 
opened fire, killed and wounded twenty-one of the Chesa- 
peake's crew, and forcibly impressed three American 
citizens and one British subject. 

News of this outrage on the American flag reached 
Boston June 30, and fast on its heels came copies of the 
spirited resolutions of the citizens of Norfolk, Virginia, 
and of other towns between there and Boston. The pro- 
ceedings that followed are of great interest, as indicating 
a struggle between the Essex Junto, which wished to con- 
done the outrage if not defend the Leopard, and the patri- 
otic element of the party, led by John Quincy Adams and 
Otis. 

For a time the news produced the same effect in Boston 
as elsewhere. All six newspapers, including the Palladium 
and the Repertory, organs of the Essex Junto, united in 
reprobating the British government, but the principal 
Federalists of the town refused to call a town meeting, 
probably because they wished to await further informa- 
tion. 16 The Republicans then took out of their hands the 
opportunity of leading public sentiment, and called a pub- 
lic meeting for July 10. The announcement was made in 
the Chronicle of the 9th, together with a statement that it 

18 In 1811, the Federalists took no action on the Non-Intercourse Act 
of March 3, which was considered as a prelude to war, until the 31st; in 1809, 
no meeting on the Force Act, which passed January 9, was held until the 
24th. 



CALM, CONSPIRACY, CHESAPEAKE AFFAIR 277 

would be highly improper to admit to the meeting "those 
whom we have reason to suppose have been the principal 
cause of our difficulties" — namely, the "Federal leaders," 
whom the paper accused of indirect responsibility for the 
Leopard's action by their "display of disaffection," which 
"encouraged the British to try the experiment." This 
unjust and tactless statement was justly resented by the 
Federalists, and served only to revive party hatred at a 
time when all party recriminations should have been sup- 
pressed. John Quincy Adams was the only prominent 
Federalist to attend. The Federalists then called a regu- 
lar town meeting for July 16, but the Essex Junto, true 
to the British bias of their minds, were already defending 
the British side of the case through the columns of the 
Repertory, and refused to assist. The great body of citi- 
zens did go, however, since some two thousand persons 
were present as opposed to two hundred at the Demo- 
cratic meeting. Harrison Gray Otis, the most prominent 
speaker, delivered a spirited denunciation of the British 
outrage. He also served on a committee, composed chiefly 
of Federalists, that drew up a set of resolutions promising 
the government their support. 17 

This town meeting of July 16, 1807, separated Otis, 
Adams, and the body of Federalists from the Essex Junto, 
and made apparent the willingness of the latter to go to 
all lengths to defend England and to embarrass Jefferson's 
administration. To Otis's credit let it be said that he was 
willing to forget party lines in this period of party bitter- 
ness. Unfortunately it was the last time he could be so 
impartial, for the administration soon embarked in a 

17 N. E. Federalism, 183; Repertory, July 10, 1807; Boston Town Records, 
1796-1813, p. 222; J. Q. Adams, Memoirs, i, 469. Adams states that Otis pro- 
posed another resolution, calling on the government for the protection of a 
naval force, but withdrew it by request of Adams and Jarvis, because it would 
imply a censure on the administration. 



278 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

policy that made it impossible for a Massachusetts man 
to support Jefferson, and at the same time be loyal to his 
state. 

LETTERS 

After Otis returned to Boston, in 1801, he corresponded 
frequently with the two South Carolina friends he made 
at Philadelphia: John Rutledge, who continued in Con- 
gress until 1803, and Robert Goodloe Harper, who by this 
time had changed his residence to Baltimore. The for- 
mer's views, it will be observed, differed in no way from 
those of the average New England Federalist, except on 
the Chesapeake incident. I have added a letter from Otis's 
loyalist uncle, Harrison Gray, giving his view of that 
affair. 

JOHN RUTLEDGE TO OTIS 

Weathersfield July 17th 1803 
My dear friend, 

Altho' I had a wet ride home, yet it was preferrable to the 
dusty one I had in going, and the weather considered a pleasant 
one. Thursday night at 10 o'Clock I arrived in the dark and rain 
at Poinfret, where I heard a chattering of french, and upon 
entering the Inn found Gou[verneu]re Morris with two french 
Valets — a french travelling companion, and his hair buckled 
up in about one hundred Papilliottes. His wooden leg, papilli- 
ottes, french attendants, and french conversation made his 
Host, Hostess, their daughters, & grand Daughters, with the 
whole family, including the Hostler & Betty the Cook maid, 
stare most prodigiously; and gave me some idea how the natives 
looked when poor Cooke made his Entree at the friendly 
Isles. When I arrived at a village where I the next day dined 
the Landlord, who proved to be a federalist, told me Govr Clin- 
ton from New York had passed by the day before in a coach by 
himself, & his son in law Mr Genet in company in another 
coach, & together they had three french servants; and he added, 
with a most sapient look, that Mr Ben Austin had that morning 
passed by in a Coach from Hartford, and he could swear these 



CALM, CONSPIRACY, CHESAPEAKE AFFAIR 279 

fellows were not going to Boston for anything good, they were 
three devils. It was impossible to hear this denunciation without 
laughing, and I told him that his Govr Clinton was Govre 
Morris, he made many apologies was very eloquent in his 
eulogies upon Morris, & expressed very strongly his regrets 
that he had not stopped & given him an opportunity of con- 
versing with the great Man who had made such great speeches 
in Congress. . . . 

JOHN RUTLEDGE TO OTIS 

Weathersfield October 1st 1803 

My dear friend — 

*********** 

The elections which were held last week were quite as favor- 
able as the friends of national liberty expected, & from what I 
hear & see I really believe the fever of democracy has had its 
crisis & that things will now be growing better & better. There 
is a great sterility of domestic politics, but the meeting of the 
National Assembly will soon engage public attention. Our Mas- 
ter will have mighty fine tales to amuse his Mountain & their 
mob with — we shall have the prosperous condition of the 
Republic eulogized, & hear much of the great advantages which 
will obtain to us by the purchase of a trackless world. A Coun- 
try which when worth the holding will I have no doubt rival & 
oppose the atlantic States. I do not mean New Orleans which 
was absolutely necessary for us to get, and which in substance 
is all we have got for our fifteen Millions. This seems to me a 
miserably calamitous business — indeed I think it must result 
in the disunion of these States — and yet such is the force of 
prejudice & popular delusion that the measure cannot yet be 
even brought to the bar of argument. I have a letter of a pretty 
recent date from London saying Great Britain had captured 
four millions sterling value of property from the french & 
dutch, and that John Bull was in high Spirits, full of confidence 
in his preparations & strength, & not fearful on the score of 
invasion. I wait with impatience to hear the fate of these inva- 
ders who are I think destined to fatten the fish between the 
coasts of france & england. Am I, do you think, to give up all 
hope of getting my renegado Peter? If money can tempt your 



280 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

Constables you may offer & give 300$ for his apprehension. 
Pray present my affectionate Comps to your dear Mrs Otis to 
whom Mrs R desires to be remembered most respectfully. 
That both of you & all of your little tribe may enjoy health 
happiness & every kind of comfort is the fervent prayer of 

Your sincere friend 

John Rutledge 

robert goodloe harper to otis 

Baltimore May 27th 1806 

My dear Otis 

*********** 

I am sorry to find that one of the last of our great federal 
posts indeed the last but one, is about to be at length reduced. 18 
You have sustained a long siege, and done the duty of a brave 
and faithful garrison; but no works, however defended, can 
hold out finally, against the united operation of sap and block- 
ade. It has long been my settled opinion that the delusions of 
democracy, like other delusions of the human mind, cannot be 
resisted by reason and truth alone. These delusions must wear 
out of themselves, be dissipated by suffering, or counter-acted 
by other delusions and passions, to which circumstances may 
give birth or activity. . . . 

In the Drama now acting, or perhaps only rehersing, on the 
theatre of our world, my favourite hero is Alexander; whose 
character, however, is not yet fully ascertained, and perhaps 
not fully formed. Prince Charles comes next, who has at length 
arrived at that station in his own country, which alone can 
enable a man to display, with effect, great talents and great 
qualities. But his talents as a statesman, without which bis 
military talents though the first of the age must be unavailing, 
are yet to be proved. The character & principles of Buonoparte 
I detest, while I admire his capacity and his vigour, and am free 
to confess that he acts a most important part in the piece. The 
parts next in interest are cast in England; but we do not know 
much of the actors yet, and what we do know is not much to 
their advantage. My feelings and affections, however, are with 
them, and I hope that they will worthily sustain their parts. 
18 A reference to the state elections in Massachusetts. 



CALM, CONSPIRACY, CHESAPEAKE AFFAIR 281 

The affairs of our own country make a sort of under-plot, 
which engages the attention only because it is near, and in 
which the miserable actors, incapable of " rising to the dignity 
of being hated," excite no other emotions than those of pity and 
contempt; or if detested, are detested only as odious reptiles 
which crawl about our feet, and by their filthiness and deformity 
fill us with disgust, or excite apprehension by their venomous 
qualities. Ohe jam satis! 

God bless you; ardently wishes, my dear Otis, 

Your affectionate friend 

Rob: G: Harper 



JOHN RUTLEDGE TO OTIS 

Charleston July 29th 1806 

My dear friend 

*********** 

Although I have enjoyed great good health since I saw you, 
yet I am growing old, my friend; & so grey, that if Mrs O, in 
any prospect of an increase to your family hereafter, should 
take a fancy to pluck three black hairs out of my head, as Mrs 
Pickle longed to out of Commodore Trunnions, she would still 
be more embarrassed to find them. Assure her however, that 
she will find me upon that, & upon every other occasion as gentle 
as a Lamb, & always ready to prove how much I respect, esteem 
& venerate her. I beg leave with all due humility to kiss Miss 
Eliza's hand — there is not a fairer one in all Charleston. I beg 
to be remember'd to my friend Harry affectionately, & to all 
my young friends of your Nursery. 

The friends of good government in this section of the Union, 
have been filled with gloom by the cloud which hangs over ' the 
head Quarters of good Principles.' I will not importune you by 
an enquiry respecting the causes which combined to produce 
this degraded state, but do most sincerely pray, & hope, that 
fortune may soon play your wonderfully lucky fools a trick, & 
make their fall in proportion to their elevation. You are so 
commercial a people, that I had believed your Politics would 
have been chastened by the non importation law which is to 
take place as to certain articles after November; & by the gov- 
ernments acquiescence in Mirandas expedition. We are surely a 



282 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

set of bungling Politicians — we affront all the powers of Europe 
at one time — it would be curious, if they were to act as two 
hostile parties do in one of Shakespears plays, agree to suspend 
their difficulties untill they had punished us. We have a party, 
who know nothing of & care nothing for commerce, & numbers 
who, because we are not to be conquered, seem to forget that 
we, upon the Coast, at least, may at any time be ruined. By 
our last accounts from England the state of Europe seems un- 
settled & gloomy. The humiliation of the ancient house of 
Austria is deplorable. The king of Naples must yield every 
thing, I think, to the superior force, & ascendancy of Bonaparte. 
Prussia plays a part which nobody seems to understand — but 
England will forever hold out — their sinking fund will enable 
them to borrow as much as they please, & their trade is greater 
than ever. I have long considered england as but the advanced 
guard of our Country, & it is to be lamented, that the conduct of 
that government should be such towards a portion of our Coun- 
trymen, as to prevent any one american from wishing that their 
resistance may be successful. If they fall we do — Bonaparte 
neither loves nor values any thing, but the agrandizement of 
the Nation, & the extension of his own military fame. To 
Messrs. Cabot Ames Perkins Mason Davis &c &c &c pray 
make my Comps. acceptable. Adieu my dr Otis & believe me 
to be with encreased attachment 

Your sincere & faithful friend 

I J: RUTLEDGE 

OTIS TO ROBERT GOODLOE HARPER 

From the Harper Manuscripts 

Boston 19 April 1807. 
My dear friend, 

It would give me great pleasure to be instrumental in the 
promotion of your wishes to raise a sum of money by loan ; but 
am unable to give you any encouragement of my being able to 
effect it. Indeed I am so little in this way of dealing that I can 
only promise you to employ some intelligent broker and ascer- 
tain through that medium the practicability of your plan, and 
to add to your offers my own assurances of the reliance which I 
know may always be placed upon your word and your resources. 



CALM, CONSPIRACY, CHESAPEAKE AFFAIR 283 

It is true that we abound in monied men, but I may add that 
opus nummi crescit quantum crescit pecunia ipsa, and our capi- 
talists here find it easy to invest their superfluous dollars on 
more advantageous terms than you offer, and the proximity of 
security is a circumstance that will always give a preference to 
proposals from men on the spot. I presume that the course 
and relations of business are much the same here as in your city. 
The minds of men teem with projects, & because everything has 
hitherto succeeded owing to the unprecedented circumstances 
of our Country, the conclusion is that nothing can miscarry. 
Hence bridges, turnpikes, canals, houselots and every species of 
property are under some aspect or another objects of specula- 
tion, and I hope we may never see the ruin as broad as the 
enterprise. It is the principal misfortune of our country that all 
avenues to great and liberal and patriotic objects are shut 
against the noble and highminded; and that the ardour and 
genius which were naturally to sway the affairs of state, are 
forced into a competition with mercantile and landjobbing pro- 
jectors. Hence money is the object here with all ranks and de- 
grees, and though a great deal is accumulated, yet as Paddy 
would say, still more is distributed, and every reservoir has 
many aqueducts. . . . You will see Mason on his return and 
see whether he confirms these ideas, and I will cheerfully coope- 
rate with him, or endeavour without him to obtain the requisite 
information, which is all I can engage. 

I shall in a few days give to a Mr Story 19 from this place a 
line of introduction to you, at his particular request, and will 
thank you to pay him such attentions as may be consistent 
with your convenience and leisure. He is a young man of tal- 
ents, who commenced Democrat a few years since and was 
much fondled by his party. He discovered however too much 
sentiment and honour to go all lengths, & acted on several oc- 
casions with a very salutary spirit of independence & in fact did 
so much good, that his party have denounced him, and a little 
attention from the right sort of people will be very useful to him 
& to us. . . . 

I am with great esteem my dr Sr yr. respectful friend 

H. G. Otis 

19 Joseph Story. 



284 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

JOHN RUTLEDGE TO OTIS 

Charleston August 3d 1807. 
*********** 

You are so cool & dispassionate a people in Boston that you 
seem to have escaped the passion which enflames us, in conse- 
quence of the outrage on one of our frigates/ Altho' I deprecate 
war quite as much as any of my friends can, yet, I think, a War 
(even with Great Britain) would prove more honourable pros- 
perous & safe, & less costly, than a state of Peace in which a 
foreign Nation is to exercise the right of searching our National 
Ships. The general business of impressing American seamen was 
to be sure not worth mooting — where G. Britain has in her 
service one of our sailors we have twenty of hers on board our 
Merchantmen, & this is so well known in that section of the 
Union where Mariners & navigation belong (New England) 
that complaints have ceased. The complainings come from Vir- 
ginia, where there are neither sailors nor ships, & where this is 
contrived to aliment & concentrate the angry passions floating 
through our Country against G. Britain, Altho' this disgraceful 
Spirit has brought upon us our present deplorable condition, & 
this miserable state is chargeable to the Errors & Vices of those 
Empirics who administer our government, still my friend we 
must support this government. With our Commerce so ex- 
tended as it is, & our Keels fretting every sea, we must have a 
navy; & that will be impossible if our Ships of War are to be 
searched — we must kick against this & fight against it, & fight 
as we should pro Aris & focis. Had I more paper I should scrib- 
ble much more on this topic. Pray remember me affectionately 
to Mrs Otis & the young folks. 

HARRISON GRAY TO OTIS 

N 18 Clipstone St Fitzroy Square [London] Augt 10th [1807] 

My Dear Nephew 

*********** 

I hope to God the Unhappy differences between this Country 
& yours will be amicably settled as a War (which I pray God to 
avert) would be ruinous to both, the Goverment here seem 



CALM, CONSPIRACY, CHESAPEAKE AFFAIR 285 

disposed to yield to everything in reason, and the Merchants 
say, that your Country is grasping at too much, that if you 
give them an Inch, they want an Ell, and that they are never 
satisfied — when both Goverment are disposed for Peace, it is a 
melancholy consideration that the indiscretion of Hot headed 
Admirals & Needy Captains & a misguided Mob, shoud bring 
on hostilities between Countries that wish to be at peace,Your 
Government has not yet sent any Official dispatches of the 
unpleasant business the President Speech is thought in general 
to be moderate. It would have been much more so, if he had 
permitted the fleet that was in distress to have had supplies for 
that time & then not to expect any more hereafter. It would 
have been but liberal to have done it. 

Stocks rose yesterday 27 [?] P Cent upon the prospect of 
Peace upon the Continent as the 13th Article in the Treaty of 
Peace with Russia & France the Emperor offers his mediation 
for Peace & the Tyrant accepts — I refer you to the papers for 
all particulars. With my best love & regards to Mrs Otis and all 
your dear Flock & may you all live long & be happy is the Wish 
of your Affectionate Uncle & Faithful Friend 

H. Gray. 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE FEDERALIST MACHINE * 
1800-1823, mt. 35-58 

The disastrous election of 1800 demonstrated to Fed- 
eralist leaders the need of solidarity and organization in 
their party. Two courses were open to them. They might 
have popularized their party, as the Republicans had 
done in the Middle States, by adopting the convention of 
delegates as a method of nomination. But so democratic 
an institution was contrary to all Federalist faith and 
precedent, especially in New England. The "Land of 
Steady Habits" was suspicious of extra-legal machinery. 
The very word "convention" had an unpleasant Jacobin 
connotation to its ears. 2 What the Federalist leaders 

1 No one has yet described, or even, it seems, suspected, the existence of the 
Federalist machine in Massachusetts. Even Dr. G. D. Luetscher makes no 
mention of it in his Early Political Machinery in the United States (Philadelphia, 
1903), to which, however, I am greatly indebted for its description of other con- 
temporary party organizations. But this is not surprising, for no party machine 
courts publicity, and the Federalist machine had particular reasons for wish- 
ing to remain secret. The Otis MSS. revealed its existence. 

2 The following is a typical Federalist comment upon one of the first county 
nominating conventions held in New England : 

Middlesex Jacobin Club. 
"The caucus, alias County Convention, alias Jacobin Club, . . . actually 
met yesterday at Noah Brooks' tavern in Lincoln. There was, it is true, much 
skulking and crossing lots, before the club got together; but after meeting, they 
proceeded to organize, as they were pleased to call it, pretty much in the manner 
that the County Conventions did in Shays' times; and the Jacobin Clubs, did 
under the reign of Robespierre in France. As the Conventioners were all men 
picked by the authors of the meeting, from 24 out of 42 towns, and chosen the 
Lord only knows how, or whom by; — and as Squire Dana, had the Resolutions 
already cut and dried, at hand, there was a wonderful unanimity." (Centinel, 
October 27, 1804.) 



THE FEDERALIST MACHINE 287 

needed was a machine, that would register the will of the 
"wise and good" as to nominations, and at the same time 
reach out to the ordinary voter, on whom (most unfortun- 
ately, from the Federalist viewpoint) their power de- 
pended in the last resort. And we find that in Massachu- 
setts by 1804 3 there was established a party organization 
differing absolutely from the usual American type, in 
that it was thoroughly centralized, made no concessions, 
even in theory, to popular rights, and was frankly based 
upon the right of the leaders to rule the party, and 
through it the body politic. Whatever the origin of this 
organization, it is safe to say that Harrison Gray Otis had 
a hand in it. He was a member of the state legislature 
when it was established, and his correspondence shows 
him to have been most active in its management. 

The starting-point of the Federalist machine in Massa- 
chusetts was the adoption of the legislative caucus, con- 
sisting of the Federalist members of both branches of the 
General Court, as the nominating organ for governor and 
lieutenant-governor. This step probably took place in 

The Federal party in New England, between 1808 and 1815, frequently held 
county conventions to pass resolutions censuring national policy, but never, 
so far as I know, made nominations by this method before 1817, and after that 
only exceptionally. 

3 I have reached the conclusion that the Federalist organization in Massa- 
chusetts, as we find it between 180-1 and 1823, was introduced between 1800 and 
1804, since (1) the legislative caucus was only established in 1800 (see next 
note); (2) various allusions in the Independent Chronicle of 1804 (e.g., October 
22), indicate that this organization had just been discovered by the Democrats; 
and (3) William Plumer organized the New Hampshire Federalists in a similar 
manner in 1804: "Associating with himself five other persons, one from each 
county, he organized them into a self-constituted State Committee. Under this 
committee, of which he was chairman, county committees were formed, and 
under these, town and school district committees, whose duty it was to bring 
every Federal voter to the polls, and secure, as far as possible, the wavering and 
doubtful to their ranks." — Life of Plumer, 313. Similar organizations were 
adopted by the New Jersey Federalists between 1801 and 1803 (Luetscher, 88, 
92-93) ; and a letter from James B. Mason, of Providence, to Otis, dated July 
11, 1808, shows that the Rhode Island Federalists had by that time gone 
through the same process. 



288 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

1800. 4 The method had been in vogue in Maryland since 
1788, and, as we have seen, had already been adopted 
by both parties in Congress, for nominating presidential 
candidates. For Massachusetts it was a great advance, 
since previously the nominations for governor had simply 
been announced in the Boston newspapers — probably 
at the dictation of the Essex Junto — and had not always 
attracted the entire party vote. Yet the party leaders 
responsible for the caucus assumed an apologetic atti- 
tude, on account of New England's prejudice against 
extra-legal machinery; and nominations made by it were 
generally announced without any indication of their 
source, or in ambiguous language. This diffidence was 
particularly apparent in 1808 and 1812, when the Federal 
party was denouncing as despotic and unconstitutional 
the nomination of Madison by a congressional caucus. 
We are fortunate to have preserved, in a contemporary 
letter, 5 a vivid picture of the Federalist legislative caucus 
in session, in the year 1816 when it was necessary to find a 
successor to Governor Strong. The letter first states that 
Otis was offered the nomination, but refused it. 

Lieut: Governor Phillips was then waited upon by a Com- 
mittee and the offer of the first place given him and received 
rather in dudgeon because as he believed the offer had elsewhere 
been made, he wrote as answer that he would neither accept the 
first nor second place, and now there was trouble in the camp 
and various candidates proposed. The President of the Senate 
[John Phillips] and Speaker [Timothy Bigelow] were both of 
the Caucus Committee; the latter succeeded in a nomination 6 
from the Committee to the grand body. All were surprised, 

4 T. C. Amory, James Sullivan, n, 65. 

5 Edward H. Robbins, ex-lieutenant-governor, to Samuel Howe, February 7, 
1816. Communicated to me through the kindness of their descendant, Archi- 
bald M. Howe, Esq. 

6 Of John Brooks, for governor. The remainder of the letter relates to the 
nomination for lieutenant-governor. 



L THE FEDERALIST MACHINE 289 

some swore, others grew faint and complained of the air of the 
room, others more collected called for adjournments and suc- 
ceeded, all inquiring as they came down, "What shall we do?" 
Another meeting was held, a new Committee softer and 
smoother were recommended for another attack on the present 
incumbent [William Phillips] of which your neighbor of the Sen- 
ate was one. It was with difficulty they could see him, and very 
soon directed to inform the body that he would not be the can- 
didate, and off they came with a flea in their ears as the saying 
is. In the meantime the Speaker grew sick, as you will see by 
the paper; a new meeting was summoned to decide on his fate, 
his friends flew to Medford and obtained a letter declining most 
fully and satisfactorily. The cry was again "What shall we 
do? " Some said "Let us consult out-doors among the common 
voters. Some of them may know something as well as the 
Court folks." Others said "It would please them and do no 
hurt — advised to delay 48 hours." In 24, they were assured 
Lieutenant Governor would stand; a new Committee appointed 
to wait on him with a vote that the Federal interest in this 
state imperiously demanded of him the sacrifice and nothing 
short of his compliance would satisfy the public sentiment and 
to request his permission to use his name. He replied that he 
had consulted conscience and duty and found himself bound 
to assent, and from that moment was as clay in the potter's 
hands. 

"The caucus committee," which is mentioned in this 
letter, consisted of one member from each county in the 
state, and, as in this case, its recommendation was gener- 
ally adopted by the whole body. Otis wrote William 
Sullivan in 1822, after intimating that he would accept 
the nomination for governor, "I venture only to suggest 
that a nomination of Governor ought not to be referred 
to a Caucus Committee — It is a most exceptionable mode." 
A letter from James Lloyd in 1808, addressed to "Honble. 
Mr. Otis, chairman of Federal meeting of the members of 
the Legislature," 7 and accepting his nomination for Sen- 

7 Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc, xlv, 374. 



290 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

ator, indicates that the caucus then possessed a func- 
tion that it has just lost — that of selecting United States 
Senators. 

Either the legislative caucus, or the caucus committee, 
elected annually a smaller and permanent body, the Cen- 
tral Committee of the State. This body, consisting gen- 
erally of seven Bostonians, not all of whom were neces- 
sarily members of the legislature, was the keystone and 
executive head of the Federalist machine in Massachu- 
setts. It appointed the county committees, through which 
it controlled the town committees and all nominations 
to the General Court; it directed the campaigns, pub- 
lished an annual "address to the people," distributed 
literature, kept local leaders up to the mark, and saw to it 
that Federalist towns were fully represented; in short, it 
had every function of the modern state central committee, 
and possessed far more power. Its very existence, how- 
ever, as well as that of the organization that flowed from 
it, was intended to be kept a profound secret; not only on 
account of its violation of New England traditions, but be- 
cause, as a similar committee in Philadelphia observed in 
1808, "Considerate people are convinced that measures 
must be digested by the few, nevertheless among the mass 
each is desirous that he should be one of the number." 8 
The leaders must have been fairly confident that their 
secrecy could be maintained, for the Centinel, describing 
an exactly similar Democratic machine in 1808, had the 
effrontery to denounce its efforts as "wicked exertions 
of wicked men" and a "profanation of the temple of 
freedom." 9 The Chronicle, on the other hand, frequently 

8 Am. Hist. Rev., xvn, 760. 

9 Article, " Freedom of Election," in Centinel, August 3, 1808. Cf. Luetscher, 
105, 141-43. From what I have observed in the course of this study, I should 
say that the Democratic organization in Massachusetts was in all essentials the 
same as the Federalist, except for a substitution, from 1808 on, of the county 



THE FEDERALIST MACHINE 291 

served up to its readers an expose of the Federalist ma- 
chine. Both parties, it seems, lived in glass houses, and 
threw stones freely. 

Our principal source of information for the activities 
of the Central Committee consists in a few copies that 
have survived of printed circular letters, signed in manu- 
script, by which it communicated with the county and 
town committees. 10 The signatures indicate its personnel. 
Otis's name invariably stands first, suggesting that he 
was chairman — a supposition which several letters from 
local committee men among his papers, addressed to 
him in that capacity, 11 confirm. Associated with him are 
such men as Thomas Handasyd Perkins, William Sulli- 
van, Daniel Sargent, John Welles, and John Phillips, all 
politicians, and members of leading Boston families; Israel 
Thorndike, one of the wealthiest merchants of Boston; 
ArtemasWard, son of the general of the same name, and 
Francis Dana Channing, a brother of William Ellery 
Channing. Although this list is notable for the absence of 
any member of the Essex Junto persuasion, yet we find 
that at this period the Essex Junto profoundly influ- 
enced Federalist policy, and that the committees which 
managed the presidential campaigns of 1808 and 1812 
were chosen almost exclusively from its ranks. Probably 
the Junto considered the routine work of the central 
committee below its consideration. 

convention for the county mass meeting, which gave the voter a slightly better 
chance of overruling the dictates of the men " higher up." See J. Q. Adams, 
Memoirs, i, 538-40; Centinel, March 30, 1811, April 3, 1819 (exposes of Demo- 
cratic circular letters) ; Boston Scourge, September 17, 181 1 ; Centinel, October 9, 
1824; Diary of William Bentley, in, 303. The Democratic machine, it seems, 
was even then controlled by the federal office-holders in Boston — Aaron Hill, 
Henry Dearborn, Perez Morton, James Prince, etc. 

10 Besides the one here reproduced in facsimile, there is one dated February 
9, 1810, in the Am. Antiq. Soc; one of April 13, 1810, in the New York Hist. 
Soc. Another, dated April 19, 1811, is printed in the Chronicle, May 2, 1811. 

11 Cf. Josiah Dwight's letters, following this and the next chapter. 



292 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

Circular letters were issued at least twice a year: be- 
fore the governor's election, and between that date (the 
first Monday in April) and the election of state represen- 
tatives. A page of stock remarks on French influence, 
Jacobin intolerance, etc., laying stress upon the particular 
need for exertion that year, was always followed by a 
confidential communication on methods and organization. 
The circular of February 9, 1810, for instance, states to 
the county committees: 

You will impress the several town committees, with the 
necessity of dividing their towns into sections, of appointing 
committees for every district, of confirming the doubtful, and 
exciting those who are firm; and of sending the full number of 
representatives. The means of information must be placed in 
the hands of all who will make a right use of them. 

You will recommend to the committees frequent meetings 
with the inhabitants, and the prompt distribution of any politi- 
cal papers they may receive, and communications of any intel- 
ligence they may obtain. 

A correspondence should be maintained between the several 
county committees, and information given of the arts that 
may be resorted to by our opponents, in season to frustrate 
them. 

The second page of the circular of February 19, 1811 
(reproduced opposite in facsimile), shows the Central 
Committee ordering a change in the form of the county 
committees; and the circular of April 19, 1811, addressed 
to the town committees, gives such detailed instructions 
for getting out the vote, that it is difficult to see how a 
single Federalist voter escaped being dragged to the polls. 
Taken as a whole, these documents reveal a highly central- 
ized party machine in a surprisingly advanced state of 
development: a hierarchy of committees, district, town, 
and county, all controlled and set in motion by a Central 
State Committee in Boston. 



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THE FEDERALIST MACHINE 293 

Let us now turn to the practical workings of the ma- 
chine. The county committees appointed and supervised 
the town committees, and summoned a county caucus 
some time in the month of March, to nominate a list of 
state senators. 12 This caucus was theoretically a mass- 
meeting open to every voter in the county, but, since 
only the inhabitants of the county town where it was held 
could well attend, the committee really made the nomi- 
nations. In Boston, both a town and a county, the proce- 
dure was somewhat different. Here the machinery was con- 
trolled by the " Central Committee of Suffolk County," 
appointed by the Central Committee of the State; and by 
the ward committees. These last were elected by the ward 
caucuses, and were one of the few popular features of the 
Federalist organization. Twice a year (three times in 
even years) , about two weeks before the elections for gov- 
ernor, for state representatives, and for Congress, 13 the 
Suffolk Central Committee called a Primary or Initial 
Caucus. This institution was composed of the Central 
Committee, the ward committees, and a carefully selected 
list of invited guests, which made it a very congenial little 
affair. It was held either at the Exchange Coffee-House, 
or at Jemmy Vila's "Concert Hall," and its privacy 
was respected by the Federalist press. At the March 

12 Senatorial districts coincided with county lines until the famous Gerry- 
mander of 1811, which confused the Federalist machine considerably. 

13 The multiplicity of elections in Massachusetts before the Constitutional 
Amendment of 1831 is somewhat confusing. The election day for governor 
and state senators was the first Monday in April. State representatives could 
be chosen at any time " before ten days before the last Wednesday in May " ; the 
first Monday in May was the usual date in Boston. The last Wednesday in 
May, when the governor was inaugurated and the legislative year began, was 
known as "General Election," or more popularly "Nigger "lection," as it was 
the only day in the year on which negroes were allowed on the Common. Mem- 
bers of Congress and presidential electors were chosen, as now, early in Novem- 
ber. The list of elections is further complicated by "Artillery Election," the 
first Monday in June, a great occasion upon which the Commander of the 
Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company was chosen on the Common. 



294 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

meeting a list of state senators was agreed upon, and at 
the October meeting, in even years, a member of Con- 
gress was nominated, without, it appears, taking the 
slightest notice of the other towns that were in the same 
district with Boston. Again, in May, the Initial Caucus 
selected a list of representatives for the "Boston Seat" in 
the General Court. Every town had a right to one mem- 
ber in the lower house for every 225 ratable polls, but 
Boston never sent more than seven members until 1805. 
Up to that year the courts insisted on a literal applica- 
tion of the constitutional provision that "every member 
of the house of representatives shall be chosen by written 
votes," which made the writing of ballots an onerous 
task. After printed ballots were allowed, the Initial 
Caucus availed itself of the town's full privilege, and 
nominated annually between twenty-seven and forty-five 
representatives, who were invariably elected, and con- 
stituted a welcome addition to the Federalist forces in the 
General Court. 

Nominations made by the Initial Caucus were an- 
nounced in the newspapers as being "recommended" 
from some mysterious source, and were formally adopted 
by the General or Grand Federal Caucus at Faneuil Hall, 
to which every Federalist in town was invited, on the 
Sunday evening before election day. This was, however, 
a mere matter of form; the Grand Caucus was practically 
only a political rally. The April one was the great occasion 
of the year, and invariably the scene of a brilliant forensic 
display by Otis and the lesser Boston orators. John Quincy 
Adams writes in his diary, under date of April 5, 1807: 

Mr. Dexter called upon me this afternoon. I attended the 
federal meeting at Faneuil Hall this evening. The hall was 
nearly as full as it could hold. Mr. Quincy was speaking when 
I went in. Mr. Otis and Mr. Gore succeeded him. But there 



THE FEDERALIST MACHINE 295 

was no diversity of opinion. The vote was put for supporting 
Mr. Strong as Governor, at the election to morrow, and Mr. Rob- 
bins as Lieutenant Governor, with the last years list of Sena- 
tors. They were all unanimously carried. Walking home with 
Mr. .Dexter, I was remarking upon the questionable nature of 
this party organization, and its tendency under our Constitu- 
tion. It is perhaps unavoidable, but it is not altogether recon- 
cilable to the freedom of the elective principle. 

Only two occasions are known of a revolt against the 
dictation of an Initial Caucus. The first was in ,1814, 
when William H. Sumner was so nominated for Congress. 
A group of the younger Federalists, who were becoming 
tired of the old party methods, then waited upon Major 
Russell, in whose paper, the Centi?iel, the nomination had 
been announced, and asked him why they had not been 
consulted. He replied : " If the young men of Boston won't 
step into the traces, they must be whipped in ! " This was 
enough for the young men. They called a separate caucus, 
nominated Andrew Ritchie, Jr., and presented his claims 
with such vigor at the Grand Caucus that the machine 
was forced to bring in a compromise candidate. 14 Again, 
in a congressional bye-election of 1817, the Initial Caucus 
was called to account by the Central Committee of the 
State for nominating Jonathan Mason, the purity of whose 
Federalism was then somewhat in doubt. The Central 
Committee called the Grand Caucus earlier than usual, 
and pushed through a new nomination ; but the members 
of the Initial Caucus, tenacious of their privilege, insisted 
that this action was illegal, and ordered all true Federal- 
ists to vote for Mason. 15 

Election day in Boston was an exciting affair, under the 
old regime. The only polling place was Faneuil Hall. All 

14 William H. Sumner, History of East Boston, 743; Boston papers for Novem- 
ber, 1814. 

16 Centinel, October 29-November 12, 1817; Niles, xxm, 209. 



296 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

day its steps were lined with young men of both parties, 
offering to the voters as they arrived written or printed 
ballots, and taking a last opportunity to strengthen the 
wavering and alarm the timid. No secrecy was possible 
under these circumstances; every man had to show his 
colors or abstain from voting, and vigilant ward commit- 
tees made life miserable for stay-at-homes. Otis was loath 
to give up the old methods in 1822, when the city charter 
was adopted, in favor of separate polling places in the 
wards. Federalist supremacy, he wrote William Sullivan, 

depends upon the influence and example of the most respect- 
able persons in the various walks and professions who have 
long been habituated to act together. — The force of these per- 
sons is increased by the sympathy and enthusiasm of numbers, 
and by a feeling of shame or self reproach which attends the 
consciousness of a Icnoivn dereliction of duty — The class which 
is acted upon by this example and influence realize a pride and 
pleasure in shewing their colors upon a general review, which 
they cannot feel when trained in a gun house. — The old leaders 
have learned the art of giving a salutary impulse to the whole 
body when collected together. — This impulse ought to be a 
unit, to procure unity of action. — It is easier to manage the 

town of B by a Lancastrian system of political discipline 

than to institute numerous schools. 16 

Judged by the results, this "Lancastrian system" had 
been a complete success. While the Federal party existed, 
Boston was its pocket borough. Between 1788 and 1828 
it never failed to give a majority to the Federalist candi- 
date for Congress. A Democratic candidate for governor 
carried the town only twice (1800 and 1801) between 1797 
and 1825; and the Democratic ticket for the Boston Seat 
succeeded but once (1800) in the same period. No wonder, 
then, that Federalists called stolid Boston "The Head- 
quarters of Good Principles." 

18 January 19, 1822. MS. collection of N. Y. Public Library. 



THE FEDERALIST MACHINE 297 

In spite of the scurrility and personal abuse with which 
newspapers of both parties were filled ; in spite of the per- 
fervid speeches of night-before caucuses, elections in New 
England during the Federalist epoch were never disgraced 
by disorder or violence. New England at that time had 
a rigid code of etiquette regarding political campaigns, 
which we would do well to return to nowadays. Stump- 
speaking, spellbinding, and whirlwind tours were un- 
known ; political rallies, other than the grand caucuses, 
were rare; and best of all, candidates were absolutely for- 
bidden by public opinion to canvass or electioneer in their 
own behalf. It was even considered improper for them to 
make a written denial of charges. Samuel Dexter, in 1814, 
apologized for publishing an explanation of his attitude, 
when unexpectedly nominated by the Democrats; and 
Otis's friends dissuaded him from publishing a denial of 
his opposition to war loans, when he was a canclidate for 
governor in 1823. 17 But political conversation and news- 
paper campaigning never abated during the feverish 
period between 1807 and 1815. The State Street insur- 
ance offices became informal political clubs, at which 
leading Federalists would drop in during the morning to 
discuss the latest French outrage or Jacobin delusion. 
"The office of the Suffolk Insurance Company," writes 
Lucius Manlius Sargent, 18 "was more noted for its daily 
political harangues, than for its semi-annual dividends. . . . 
The voice of Mr. Parsons, then Chief Justice of the Com- 
monwealth, was often heard in those conventicles; not 
in his official capacity, of course, but as the Magnus 

17 Mr. Dexter s Address to the Electors of Massachusetts (1814), 1, 9; 
Luetscher, 65; Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc, 2d Ser., xiv, 74; Isaac Parker to Otis, 
January, 1823; "if intended for the public it [Otis's vindication] is introducing 
a mode of electioneering wholly new to our section of the Country & one which, 
as usual in the southern states, has been much condemned here." 

18 Reminiscences of Samuel Dexter, 84. 



298 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

Apollo of the assembly." Formal dinners, especially the 
Federalist Fourth of July dinners, were occasions for the 
display of piquant political toasts, for which Otis was fa- 
mous. Twenty formal toasts, accompanied by a band of 
music, and (if the dinner were out of doors) discharges 
of artillery, were not unusual on these occasions, and in- 
formal toasts followed until most of the diners were under 
the table or carried home. The following are a few of the 
formal ones at the Federalist dinner in Salem on July 4, 
1812, just after war was declared: 

July 4th, 1812. — We hail it as the commencement of a new 
Independence. x 9 

2 guns. "Yankee Doodle." 

Embargo. — A base retreat, treacherously beat, while com- 
mercial prosperity was in full march. 
1 gun. "Austrian Retreat." 

Non-Importation. — A vile measure calculated to introduce 
smuggling, deprave the public morals, and sap the foundation 
of Northern liberty. 

1 gun. "Jefferson's Delight." 

The Existing War. — The Child of Prostitution, may no 
American acknowledge it legitimate. 
1 gun. "Wapping Landlady." 

Democratic Office Holders: — They draw double rations and 
never go on fatigue duty except on days of election. 
1 gun. "Faith! The world's a good thing." 

Thos. Jefferson. — May we never cease to continue to 
idolize the man who copied off the Declaration of Independence. 
1 gun. "Dicky Gossip is the man." 

Physical and Moral Strength. — the state is favored of 
Heaven which sees itself strong in the field, strong, in the 
cabinet, and strong in the hearts of the people. 

3 guns. " Gov. Strongs March." 20 

19 No doubt a hint that the author desired secession. 

20 Salem Gazette, July 7, 1812. 



THE FEDERALIST MACHINE 299 

To return to the functions of the Central State Com- 
mittee, we find one of its most important duties was that 
of "educating the voters." The "address to the people," 
which every year filled the front page of the Centinel in 
the latter part of March, was its production; and in many 
of them I have observed Otis's mannerisms of style. The 
members of the committee wrote political essays, and 
stimulated others to express their ideas. Newspapers 
were more extensively employed as a party weapon by 
the Federalists than by their opponents. Between 1801 and 
1804, when the party organization was being established, 
many of the most famous party organs were founded, such 
as the Boston New-England Palladium, the Charleston 
Courier, and the New York Evening Post. As late as 1810 
there were Federalist newspapers in every state, and in 
two of the territories; the total number was only two 
less than that of the Democratic journals. 21 Among 
Otis's manuscripts is a list of northern New England 
newspapers, containing many pithy comments, 22 which 
shows evidence of having been compiled in 1808 for the 
use of the committee that managed the presidential cam- 
paign of that year. When in 1812, a Boston Federalist 
paper, the Weekly Messenger, ventured to criticize the 
Federalist presidential nomination, Otis wrote William 
Sullivan, sputtering with rage against the "perfidy" of 
the editor "in thus perverting a paper set up with great 
pains trouble and expense by the Federal Party." The 
Central Committee, profiting by Josiah Dwight's sug- 

21 157 Federalist (115 in New England and the Middle States), and 159 
Democratic (87 in the same section). Isaiah Thomas, History of Printing (2d 
ed.), ii, 517. 

22 For instance: "The Watchman, printed at Montpelier, Vt. by Samuel 
Goss. though federal — this watchman appears to sleep on his post — if 
roused to his duty and made acquainted with the importance of his trust, 
he may prove as serviceable to his country as the winged biped that saved 
Rome." 



300 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

gestion 23 that pamphlets reached a class of readers who 
refused to read Federalist newspapers, circulated also that 
sort of literature in large quantities. Christopher Gore 
wrote in the spring of 1808 that five thousand copies of 
Timothy Pickering's pamphlet on the Embargo would be 
distributed, an estimate which was probably greatly ex- 
ceeded before the campaign was over. 

A standing grievance of both parties in Massachusetts 
was the failure of remote or indifferent towns to elect 
state representatives, in order to save the expense of 
salary and mileage. An interesting letter between two 
of Otis's fellow members of the Central Committee 24 
shows that body making every effort to secure a full com- 
plement of Federalists. The results seem to indicate that 
they succeeded fairly well. 25 The Democratic legislature 
of 1811-12 passed an act providing for payment of mem- 
bers' salaries by the state; but this measure, which had 
the expected effect of securing more members from re- 
mote Democratic towns in Maine, raised the pay-roll of 
the General Court eighty-five per cent, and was repealed 
by the Federalists as soon as they returned to power. 

The Federalist political organizations in New England 
and the Middle States possessed in the Washington 
Benevolent Societies a powerful auxiliary that corres- 
ponded to the modern national party clubs. 26 The first 
society of this name was founded in New York City in 
1808, and probably acted as a central organization to all 

23 In his letter to Otis, following this chapter. 

24 T. H. Perkins's letter, following this chapter. 

26 The Chronicle of May 26, 1808, complains that Republican towns chose 
eighty-seven less than their full quota, but Federalist towns only twenty less. 

26 I am indebted for most of my data on this subject to Mr. Harland H. Bal- 
lard, of Pittsfield, and to his article, "A Forgotten Fraternity," in the Pittsfield 
Berkshire Evening Eagle, August 3, 1912. No other historian has so much as 
mentioned the Washington Benevolent Societies, which are quite as significant 
for the Federal party as the Democratic clubs of 1793 for its opponents. 



THE FEDERALIST MACHINE 301 

the others; it was followed by the establishment of the 
Washington Benevolent Society of Berkshire, at Pitts- 
field, in 1811, and of the Washington Benevolent Society 
of Massachusetts, at Boston, in February, 1812. The 
movement so quickly spread that within two years almost 
every town of any size in New England, and points so 
remote as Canandaigua and Annapolis, had established 
branch societies. Each applicant for membership was 
obliged to take an oath to support the Constitution of the 
United States, to use his exertions to preserve it "against 
the inroads of despotism, monarchy, aristocracy, and de- 
mocracy" and to be faithful to "those political principles 
which distinguished the Administration of Washington." 
He was then given a small pamphlet containing Washing- 
ton's Farewell Address and the Constitution of the United 
States, with a certificate of membership on the flyleaf. 

The objects of the Washington Benevolent Society 
were, according to the constitution of the Massachusetts 
society, "to support the constitution of the United States 
in its original purity," and "to supply the wants and 
alleviate the sufferings of unfortunate individuals within 
the sphere of our personal acquaintance." 27 Undoubtedly 
the real object was to strengthen and extend the Federal 
party, particularly among the lower classes, by a social 
bond. The society appealed to the poor, by dispensing 
charity, 28 and it greatly appealed to that most universal 
of human weaknesses, the desire to belong to something. 

27 MS. records in Mass. Hist. Society. William Sullivan, the only member 
of a Washington Benevolent Society to mention it in his writings, states in his 
Familiar Letters (1834), 325, that it was a movement'for the defense of society 
and property, occasioned by the Baltimore riots of 1812, which, however, took 
place after the New York, Pittsfield, Boston, and many other branches were 
organized. 

28 William Cobbett compares the Washington Benevolent Society (in his 
Weekly Register, May 13, 1815) to the British Literary Fund, a scheme for 
attaching hack writers to the government under the garb of charity. A better 
comparison would be to the Primrose League of the modern Unionist Party. 



302 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

Its annual dues were only a dollar; it had dinners, meet- 
ings, elaborate processions and badges, and in that period 
when the wealthy and powerful were far more respected 
and looked up to than now, it was a most desirable privi- 
lege to sit down at table with Harrison Gray Otis, Josiah 
Quincy, and Thomas Handasyd Perkins, and to be hailed 
by them as "brother." 29 The Berkshire society had over 
twenty-three hundred members, and a directory of the 
Boston society, published in 1813, contains over fifteen 
hundred names, half the Federalist vote of the town, and 
including men in every walk of life. The officers were 
chosen for the most part among the younger generation 
of Federalists. 30 Harrison Gray Otis, Jr., was secretary at 
one time, but his father was never an officer. An amusing 
(and very rare) satirical pamphlet of 1813, "The First 
Book of the * Washington Benevolents,' otherwise called 
the Book of Knaves," 31 is dedicated, among others, "To 
the 'Beloved Harry,' otherwise 'the man of the People ' "; 
and in "Chapter vi" assigns Harrison Gray Otis the 
following role in the organization of the Society: 

Now it was far past the going down of the sun; and Harry 
who was surnamed the "beloved," proposed that the council 

29 Alexander Hamilton proposed in 1802 (Works, vi, 540-43) to strengthen 
the then declining Federal party by establishing a "Christian Constitutional 
Society," with a central organization and local branches, that should hold 
meetings, dispense charity, give instructions to mechanics, and combine at 
elections. Although the leaders to whom he communicated his plans gave them 
no encouragement, the New York founders of the Washington Benevolent 
Society were endeavoring apparently to carry out his ideas. It is interesting to 
note that President Taft, on November 6, 1912, expressed his hope to see organ- 
ized a National Republican Club "which shall cherish the principles of the 
party, and be a source of political activity, not only during election years, but 
at all times." Boston Herald, November 7, 1912. 

30 The first board of officers of the Boston society consisted of Arnold and 
John Welles, William Sullivan, Josiah Quincy, Lemuel Blake, Andrew Ritchie, 
Jr., Daniel Messinger, Dr. John Collins Warren, and Benjamin Russell. 

31 The Berkshire Athenaeum of Pittsfield, Mass., has the only copy of this 
pamphlet that I have been able to discover. 



THE FEDERALIST MACHINE 303 

T 

should make preparation for the great feast of the political 
passover. 

2. Moreover he said, that albeit the name of Tory had 
become a bye-word, and a scoff among the people, he did pro- 
pose that the tribe of the tories should forthwith be called 
Washington Benevolents. 

3. And the council applauded Harry for his wisdom, and 
cried out with one voice, who is like unto the grand contriver? 

4. He hath done wonderful things! yea he hath wrought 
miraculously, and we will praise him in the gates. 

5. Verily he hath cast off the reproach of his ancestors, who 
did belong to the tribe of the republicans, and he is a man after 
our own hearts, who like the Boston Rebel 32 loveth GROG 
and feareth the King. 

This pamphlet was published as a take-off on the pom- 
pous ceremonials in which every Washington Benevolent 
Society indulged on April 30, the anniversary of Washing- 
ton's inauguration. On the whole, however, these organ- 
izations were taken quite seriously by the Democrats, 
since their growth in time of war could be viewed only as 
a menace. Charges of secret secessionist plots were fre- 
quently imputed to them, and in some places vigilance 
associations were formed to watch over the members. 
But there is no evidence that the society had any 
other objects than those I have stated. Most successful 
in these respects, it greatly increased the strength and 
solidarity of the Federal party during the War of 
1812. 

The most interesting development of the Massachusetts 
Federalist machine, on the whole, was its cooperation 
with the Federalist organizations in other states in calling 
secret meetings of delegates, in 1808 and 1812, in order to 
nominate candidates for the presidency and vice-presi- 
dency. These were the first national party conventions 

38 John Lowell. 



\ 



804 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

ever held. 33 A peculiar problem of the Federal party, 
repeated in 1808 and in 1812, brought about this prema- 
ture appearance of the capstone to modern party machin- 
ery. In each year an insurgent Democrat — in both cases 
a Clinton — entered the presidential race with more or 
less of the Federalist policies as his platform. The ques- 
tion before the Federalists then was whether to run their 
own candidates, or, with much greater chance of winning, 
to back the insurgent already in the field. Some method 
was necessary to reach a decision on this point that would 
be binding on the whole party. A congressional caucus 
was out of the question, because the growing unpopular- 
ity of this method of nomination, as practiced by the 
Republicans, was counted upon for political capital. A 
conference of leaders from all parts of the country was the 
natural alternative. 

Harrison Gray Otis seems to have been the originator of 
this prototype of the national nominating convention. 
He probably broached the idea to New York and Phila- 
delphia politicians during a visit to those cities in May, 
1808. Shortly after his return came a letter from Charles 
Willing Hare, 34 of Philadelphia, alluding to conversations 
with Otis and suggesting that it was high time to do some- 
thing about the presidential nomination. The hint was 
taken; the Grand Committee of the Federalist caucus in 

83 I have treated the 1808 convention at greater length in " The First Na- 
tional Nominating Convention, 1808," Amer. Hist. Rev., xvn, 744, an article in 
which references to statements made here on that subject will be found. The 
sources used for the 1812 convention are the Otis MSS., the memoirs of William 
Sullivan in his Public Men of the Revolution (1847), Rufus King's diary and 
correspondence in King, v, chap, xiv; letters of R. G. Harper in Steiner, Mc- 
Henry, 583, ff. There is also a brief and inaccurate article on this subject in 
Amer. Hist. Rev., i, 680. 

34 1778-1827, a prominent lawyer and Federalist leader in Philadelphia; at 
this time a member of the state legislature and a candidate for Congress. He 
was a relative of Otis's old Philadelphia friends, the Willings and Harrisons, and 
was associated with him in the management of the Bingham estate. 



THE FEDERALIST MACHINE 305 

the General Court appointed a special Committee of 
Correspondence to concert measures with the Federalists 
of other states for the approaching election. This com- 
mittee had a distinguished membership: Otis, who was 
the chairman, the venerable George Cabot, Christopher 
Gore, Timothy Bigelow (Speaker of the House), and 
James Lloyd, who had just been elected to the United 
States Senate in place of John Quincy Adams. All except 
Otis were members of the Essex Junto, or its tools. At a 
meeting on June 10, this committee determined to call " a 
meeting of Federalists, from as many states as could be 
seasonably notified, at New York." 

The easy and informal method by which the New York 
convention of 1808 was summoned was typically Federal- 
ist, and will no doubt be envied by party leaders of to-day. 
The Massachusetts Committee of Correspondence imme- 
diately notified Hare in Philadelphia, and Rufus King in 
New York, of their decision. Hare wrote Otis on June 19, 
as follows: 

I received yours of the 11th on the 16. I immediately took 
measures for convening a few of our most active firm and dis- 
creet friends. A Meeting of about a dozen was held yesterday 
— at which your objects and reasoning were stated — and so 
far as regards the propriety of the proposed convention, imme- 
diately and without hesitation acquiesced in. A Committee 
consisting of Messrs Fitzsimons, R Wain, Latimer, Morgan 
and myself, were appointed to correspond with you — and in 
obedience to your suggestion to 'organise for the South.' We 
shall immediately write to some of our friends in Maryland and 
Delaware, and after having heard from them I shall again 
address you. 

Judge Egbert Benson of New York, who happened to 
be in Boston shortly after the convention was decided 
upon, communicated with the leading Federalists in Con- 
necticut and New Jersey on his way home, and suggested 



306 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

"that they should instantly associate to themselves such 
persons as they should think proper to form a Committee 
of Correspondence," 35 a method which they doubtless 
followed. The Massachusetts Committee itself attended 
to the rest of New England, sending Otis and Bigelow on 
special missions to the different states, in order to insure 
their cooperation. No attempt seems to have been made 
to secure delegates from Virginia or North Carolina, 
where Federalism was still strong, or from the West. 

About thirty-five delegates from eight states, 36 chosen 
by exclusive committees of the Philadelphia and Boston 
types, met at New York in the third week in August. The 
very existence of the convention was supposed to be a pro- 
found secret, and no hint of it was breathed by the Feder- 
alist journals; but the coming together of so many promi- 
nent Federalists did not escape the impudent Democratic 
press. Among the delegates were Otis, Gore, and Lloyd 
from Massachusetts, Hare and Thomas Fitzsimons from 
Pennsylvania, Robert Goodloe Harper from Maryland, 
and John Rutledge from South Carolina. No record as yet 
has been found of the debates. We only know that the 
proposed coalition with the Clintonians was rejected, 
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and Rufus King being 
nominated for the presidency and vice-presidency. The 
question between supporting Clinton and making separate 
nominations was so thoroughly threshed out, however, in 
Otis's correspondence, that we may fairly assume the line 
of argument that prevailed. Otis believed that it was 
hopeless to expect the success of a Federalist candidate, 
and that to elect Clinton, whom he strongly favored, 
would not only dethrone the Virginia dynasty, but secure 
the repeal of the embargo and the abandonment of coni- 

16 Benson to Otis, July 13, 1808. 

36 See the official notification, following this chapter. 




THE FEDERALIST MACHINE 307 

mercial restriction. He was supported by the intellectual 
leader of the party, George Cabot, who saw that a page of 
democratic evolution had been turned; that the Federal 
party had better give up all hope of capturing the presi- 
dency, and ally itself with the best element among the 
Democrats. On the other side, it was argued in favor of 
separate candidates, first, that Clinton could not be 
trusted. The New York Federalists would have none of 
him. "We have condescended twice to tamper with 
Democratic Candidates," wrote Abraham Van Vechten 
to Otis, "and in both instances have been subjected to 
severe self-reproach. . . . Our experimental knowledge of 
the Clintonian System is a powerful Antidote against 
affording it any facility here." Second, Clinton could 
not be elected unless he could carry one of the two factions 
representing Pennsylvania Democracy, both of which 
came out for Madison before the convention met. And, 
third, a coalition with Clinton would be a great derelic- 
tion of principle. As Judge Theodore Sedgwick wrote 
Otis (June 6) : 

It is of infinite importance that the leading federalists should 
conduct in such manner as to convince the publick that they 
are actuated by principle. This, I imagine, can hardly be the 
case unless they act by themselves, and keep themselves sepa- 
rate from the differant parties into which their adversaries are 
divided. ... I cannot endure the humiliating idea that those 
who alone from education, fortune, character and principle are 
entitled to command should voluntarily arrange themselves 
under the banners of a party in all respects inferior, and in many 
odious, to them. 

An amusing result of the secret methods of this conven- 
tion was the fact that the Philadelphia committee, to 
which was confided the task of announcing the nomina- 
tions, did not dare to make a statement. "We were led 



308 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

to this conclusion," they wrote to the Massachusetts 
committee, "from having observed something like a Jeal- 
ousy, in our friends at having a Nomination so Important 
decided on by so small a No. as we were, and without any 
Special authority for the purpose, for altho there appears 
to be no division of sentiment thr'out the state, as to the 
Candidates, yet it was deemed most prudent that it should 
appear rather the result of General sentiment than as 
the Choice of a few to bind their party." The nomina- 
tions were therefore given to the Boston papers, as being 
the result of "information collected from every part of 
the Union . . . without the aid of any Caucus, or other 
preliminary." Many of the leading Federalist journals 
never even published the nominations, but announced 
that the Federalist electoral ticket was unpledged. This 
was probably due to a desire in some quarters to swing 
over to Clinton at the last moment. Otis, it seems, 
favored this plan, and Theophilus Parsons attempted to 
seduce the Connecticut legislature into the same course. 
Evidently the first nominating convention did not suc- 
ceed in impressing its members with loyalty to its 
decision. 

Again, in the presidential election of 1812, the Federal 
party had to decide between making separate nomina- 
tions and supporting a Clinton; De Witt Clinton having 
come out for the presidency, as his uncle George had done 
in 1808, as a Democratic insurgent. A Federalist national 
convention at New Yorkwas decided upon in June, 1812, 37 
and organized, as in 1808, by irregularly chosen commit- 
tees of correspondence in the several states. 38 Otis was 

37 Cf. William Sullivan, Public Men, 350, with King, v, 272. 

88 The Massachusetts Committee was presumably chosen by the Caucus 
Committee, as in 1808. Otis, as chairman, received letters from a Philadelphia 
"committee of correspondence and conference in regard to the Presidential 
Election" (James Milnor, Robert Wharton, Horace Binney, and Andrew 






THE FEDERALIST MACHINE 309 

chairman of a committee which elected the Massachusetts 
delegates, including himself, at a meeting consisting of 
only Cabot, Gore and Sullivan. 

The convention met in New York on September 15, 16, 
and 17, 1812. About sixty-five delegates were present 
from eleven states, including three (Rhode Island, New 
Jersey, and Delaware) that were not represented in 1808. 
A brief diary that Rufus King kept of the convention, as 
well as the Otis correspondence, shows the arguments of 
1808 being used over again. Otis was still strongly in 
favor of Clinton, and even refused to go to New York 
unless the entire Massachusetts delegation pledged itself 
in Clinton's favor. Besides the old arguments for Clinton, 
it was urged that there were no available Federalist can- 
didates. John Jay and Chief Justice Marshall were men- 
tioned, but as Samuel Dexter observed, 39 the former, 
superannuated and unpopular, "could no more play, 
president than Seneca could Emperor," and the latter/ 
was needed in the Supreme Court. In addition, De Witt 
Clinton had promised to administer the government, if he 
were elected, in a manner satisfactory to the Federalists, 
and to sue for peace with Great Britain. 40 But Rufus 
King, unconvinced by these assurances, dilated upon 
Clinton's unscrupulousness and vacillation in recent years, 
and declared that his election would merely substitute 
Csesar Borgia for James Madison. His speech produced, 
according to William Sullivan, a deadlock between Clin- 

Bayard), appointed "at a meeting of Delegates from the several wards of this 
city"; from a similar New York committee consisting of Jacob Radcliff, 
Caleb S. Riggs, J. O. Hoffman, David B. Ogden, and John Welles; from Judge 
Griffith, of New Jersey, where a committee of correspondence was appointed by 
a Federalist state convention that met on July 4; and from Joseph Pearson, 
of North Carolina. 

39 To Otis, in letter following this chapter. C. C. Pinckney refused again to 
be the candidate. 

40 See Hoffman's letter to Otis, following this chapter, and King, v, 268-70. 



310 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

ton's friends and enemies, which lasted until the conven- 
tion was about to break up without result, when 

Mr. Otis arose, apparently much embarrassed, holding his 
hat in his hand, and seeming as if he were almost sorry he had 
arisen. Soon he warmed with the subject, his hat fell from his 
hand, and he poured forth a strain of eloquence that chained 
all present to their seats; and when, at a late hour, the vote 
was taken, it was almost unanimously resolved to support 
Clinton. This effort was unprepared, but only proves how 
entirely Mr. Otis deserves the reputation he enjoys of being a 
great orator. 41 

It is a pity to spoil this dramatic picture, but unfortu- 
nately more trustworthy sources than William Sullivan's 
memory thirty-five years after the event show that Otis's 
speech, powerful though it undoubtedly was, failed to 
produce so definite a result as the nomination of De Witt 
Clinton. The convention adjourned after passing a set of 
ambiguous resolutions that left the delegates in a state 
of muddled incertitude. It was voted, according to Rufus 
King's diary, (l) that it was inexpedient to nominate 
Federalist candidates; (2) that such candidates should be 
supported "as would be likely to pursue a different course 
of measures from that of the now President," and (3) 
" that a committee of 5 persons (Pennsylvanians) be ap- 
pointed to ascertain the results of the elections for Elec- 
tors, and the Candidates whom they would be likely to 
support, and to communicate the same as expeditiously as 
practicable to the Electors of the several States." No two 
members seemed to be agreed as to the precise meaning 
that these resolves were intended to convey. 42 In most of 

41 Public Men of the Revolution, 351. 

42 Harper thought that they did not preclude the possibility of bringing in a 
Federalist candidate (McHenry, 586); King, that they committed the party to 
Clinton; George Tibbits, of New York, was so uncertain as to write Otis for his 
opinion. If the third resolution were carried out literally, the Federalists and 



THE FEDERALIST MACHINE 311 

the states, however, a "Clintonian" or "Peace" ticket 
of electors was supported by both Clintonian Democrats 
and Federalists. 

These earliest of national conventions in 1808 and 1812 
were typical of the Federal party. A few well-born and 
congenial gentlemen, who could afford the time and ex- 
pense of travel, were chosen by their friends to settle, in a 
quiet and leisurely manner, the matter of nominations. 
From the body of voters neither authority nor advice was 
asked, and profound secrecy sheltered the convention's 
deliberations from vulgar scrutiny. Like the Federalist 
state machinery that we have examined, the two New 
York conventions were based on the right of the leaders 
to settle party matters without the slightest cooperation 
of the people. Of the voter, obedience only is required ; he 
is to vote for candidates nominated he knows not how, 
because it is thought best by "those who alone from 
education, fortune, character, and principle are entitled 
to command." 

Many will dispute the claim of these secret and exclu- 
sive meetings in New York to be classed with the modern 
national party conventions. There is not much outward 
resemblance, to be sure, but they are alike in the essen- 
tials: both were composed of delegates, chosen for the 
purpose of nominating presidential candidates, and both 
were national in their scope. Furthermore, the modern 
convention system, popular in theory, has proved quite as 
susceptible to boss rule as the old Federalist machine, 
which was frankly created for that purpose. I appeal for 
authority to an observation of our most acute political 

Clintonians could not have combined on electoral tickets. As in 1808, the Fed- 
eralists attempted to keep the convention secret, but the National Intelligencer 
published an account of it, stating the main facts correctly, and adding that a 
bargain had been made with Clinton during the sessions. Otis denied that in an 
indignant public letter. N. Y. Evening Post, October 20, 23, 1812. 



312 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

seer, Mr. Dooley: "A naytional convintion, me boy, does 
nawthin' excipt whin it ain't in session. In manny a 
private room th' destinies iv this nation is bein' dis- 
cussed be level-headed statesmen far frum th' tumult an' 
th' mob." 

LETTERS ON PARTY MATTERS, 1805-1812 

JOSIAH DWIGHT TO THE FEDERALIST CENTRAL COMMITTEE 

Stockbridge, Nov 18 — 1805 
Gentlemen 

You have heretofore invited communication from your 
political brethren in the interior, whenever they should have 
any thing worthy of observation. The times with us are, at 
present, as they have been for sometime past, very little dis- 
turbed with the jargon of political Discord. Not that the spirit 
of Jacobinism is laid asleep. But, after being wearied with the 
tug of an electioneering campaign, both hostile parties seem 
glad of an opportunity to retire from the field, & enjoy the 
repose of a temporary truce. In the meantime each party main- 
tains his own ground — no terms of mediation are proposed — 
nor are any offers, of permanent peace, made on either side. 
Each flatters himself that he is gaining new strength, which 
will enable him to attack his enemy with renewed vigor, and 
either, on one side, ensure a more complete victory, or, on the 
other, save him from a more disgraceful defeat. That we must 
again, in this section of the State, be defeated by numbers, 
cannot be a subject of doubt. But we are of opinion that the 
Jacobins cannot add an Unit to their former majority, and we 
are not without hopes of a very considerable reduction. To 
effect this desideratum, however, judicious means are to be 
used. The moderate Democrats are staggered with recent 
events in Pennsylvania & elsewhere, but they cannot at once 
be induced to detach their confidence from our great political 
Demagogue, in whom they have so long put their trust. Infor- 
mation must be disseminated among them. This cannot be 
done through the medium of Federal newspapers. This class of 
people have had their prejudices wrought up to such a degree 
as to believe that " their touch is poison." The measure adopted 



THE FEDERALIST MACHINE 313 

the last Spring of circulating Pamphlets, we think the only- 
measure which can promise success. Men, who would not look 
into a Newspaper, will read a pamphlet with attention. Altho' 
for the want of time, we had very little chance to give them 
a general circulation, yet we are confident that they had a 
partial effect on the last Spring election. We therefore take the 
liberty to suggest the importance of immediately commencing 
a work of that kind, and issuing, at least, one number a month, 
from this time to April. We would not, however, be thought to 
assume a dictatorial authority over gentlemen far more com- 
petent than ourselves, and whose means of information, in the 
Metropolis, are much superior to ours, in a remote corner of 
the State. Altho' we have no doubt of the efficacy of the 
measures proposed, in this District, still if such effect, on the 
State at large, is dubious, we cannot expect it will be adopted. 
But if resort is at all to be had to such measure, you will pardon 
us for saying that, unless it be carried into operation at an 
earlier day than it was the last season, a very limited & partial 
effect, only, can be expected. Whereas if the means of communi- 
cating information to the deluded, are seasonably adopted, & 
pursued with unremitted exertion, during the time which inter- 
venes the election, we flatter ourselves that much may be 
gained. 

Your Committee, in this District, have holden a meeting & 
are organised agreeable to the recommendation in your letter 
of the 13th June. The undersigned has the honor of being 
appointed "to receive all communications" from the central 
Committee. The mode of communication may be, either by 
mail, via Springfield — or by private conveyance, either to 
this place, or to Northampton, to the care of Capt William 
Edwards, who will forward to this Town. 

You may rely, Gentlemen, on our cordial cooperation in any 
measures you may in your wisdom devise, for the preservation 
of our Constitution & Government from the despoiling hands of 
Jacobins. I am, Gentlemen, In behalf of the Committee, 

Very Respectfully Your Obedt Servt 

Josiah D WIGHT 
The Gentlemen of the 

C Committee 
[Address]: Hon Harrison G Otis Esqr 



314 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

Official Notification of the Result of the Federalist 
National Convention of 1808 

Manuscript copy sent Otis by the New York Committee of Correspondence, 

October 9, 1808 

To the Federal Republican Committee [of] 
Charleston, South Carolina 
[New York, September, 1808] 

Gentlemen, 

We do ourselves the Honor of addressing you, in behalf of 
the Federal corresponding Committee of this State, in respect 
to the approaching Presidential Election. Several Conferenfces 
on this subject have recently been held in this City, but from 
Reasons of Expediency, it has hitherto been judged proper to 
withold any Communications concerning the same. We feel 
great Satisfaction in now being authorized to announce to you 
the Result. 

The States of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, 
Vermont, New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland were sever- 
ally represented at those Deliberations, as was likewise the 
State of South Carolina by our respected Friend John Rutledge, 
Esquire of your City. 43 

After several Meetings, and after the most mature and 
dispassionate Consideration of the Subject, we formed a con- 
clusive opinion, as to the Line of Conduct most proper for the 
Federal Party to observe. It was decided to be our Correct and 
dignified Policy to afford neither Aid nor Countenance, direct 
or indirect, to any of our political opponents, but, holding 
ourselves perfectly distinct, to nominate Federal Characters 
for the offices of President and Vice President, and to support 
them, with our uniform, zealous & vigorous Exertions. This 
Determination, which we conceived best calculated to promote 
the good of our Country — to concentrate the Activity and 
Affections of our Party — to secure its Integrity, and to give 
Energy to its Efforts, has likewise received the Approbation of 
our Friends of New Jersey and Delaware. 

43 From Otis's correspondence it appears that Rhode Island was unable to 
send a delegate, because no one could be spared from the state campaign that 
was then going on, and that Delaware was unrepresented because James A. 
Bayard disapproved of the meeting. 



THE FEDERALIST MACHINE 315 

Having decided on the Measure, no difference of opinion 
could exist as to the Selection of Candidates, & Charles Cotes- 
worth Pinckney for the Office of President, and Rufus King for 
the office of Vice President, became without the least Hesitation 
our Choice. In our Deliberations, we were governed by a calm 
and unbiassed View of the State, to which our Country is 
reduced, by the rash, though imbecile Measure of the Party 
now in Power. We perceived the energies of the Nation 
paralized; — Its Commerce suspended; — its Revenue nearly 
annihilated; — its most valuable Resources abandoned, and 
its Councils under the humiliating Influence of a foreign Power. 
Under such awful and hazardous Circumstances we felt a 
solemn Conviction that the Safety, Dignity, and Independence 
of our Union, demanded an immediate and radical Change in 
the Administration of its Government. . . . 

With the States of Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee we have 
no means of Communication. We have been informed, that a 
few Votes majr be secured in those States by the Attention of 
Influential Characters in the State of South Carolina. This 
Suggestion is respectfully submitted to the Consideration of 
our Friends in Charleston — Urging and entreating them to 
lose no Time in adopting every proper and effectual Measure 
for communicating with those States, and to spare no Exer- 
tions to secure to our Candidates at least a Portion of the Votes 
of those States. We also rely with Confidence on your Atten- 
tion to our Friends in North Carolina — their Distance pre- 
vents any safe and timely Correspondence with them on our 
Part. . . . 

We shall be Happy, Gentlemen, to receive an Acknowledge- 
ment of the Receipt of this Letter, and such Information as you 
may think proper to communicate, which we trust will be as 
full & particular, as Circumstances will permit. 

We are, Gentlemen, very respectfully 
[Jacob Radcliff 
Jos: Ogden Hoffman 
Cadwallader D. Colden 
S. Jones Junr.] 44 

44 Signatures to the letter from the New York committee to Otis, in which 
this letter was enclosed. 



316 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

THOMAS HANDASYD PERKINS TO WILLIAM SULLIVAN 

From the Manuscript Collection of the New York Public Library. 

Tuesday Eve — [May 10, 1811] 46 

My dear Sir, 

I have just now learned from Bridgwater that the federalists 
are making overtures to send five Members to the Legislature 
— they sent from that town One Demo last year. 46 

Mr. Wm. Davis thinks we had best send our Ambassador — 
I have therefore engaged a Mr. Withington, a very ardent 
federalist & who formerly resided there, to get off to-morrow 
at 11 o'clock to visit the leaders there — and to whom we must 
address a letter, stating the importance it is to the issue that 
they should pursue the plan which we understand they have in 
agitation of sending five members — recommending unwearied 
exertions. Will you write and sign six letters to the Gentlemen 
whose names are below and send them to my store by 11 o'clock 
tomorrow. 

You know how to address them to produce the best effect — 
I will get Sargent to sign and will do so myself. You have had 
much to do, but I trust you will be fully remunerated. 

Yrs. 
T H Perkins 

Honle Mr Baylis 
Nahum Mitchell Esq 
General Lazell 
Nathan Lazell Esq 
Honbl. Judge Howard 
Dr. Orr. 

JOSIAH OGDEN HOFFMAN 47 TO OTIS 

[New York], July 17, 1812. 
My D Sir, 

I have had a very full & satisfactory conversation with the 
Gentleman, 48 alluded to, in your Letter. He was not only 

45 Sullivan's endorsement. 

46 Marginal comment by Sullivan : " Difference six ! ! ! " 

47 A Federalist leader in New York City, father of Ogden and of Charles 
Fenno Hoffman. 

48 De Witt Clinton. 



THE FEDERALIST MACHINE 317 

explicit on all great points, but unsolicited by me, declared, 
there should be no distinction in selecting his Agents &c. Every 
thing is doing that he and his friends can do — and on Monday 
or Tuesday next, he will refer me to Names in your quarter. 
Hitherto our conferences have been entirely confined to our- 
selves — but in a few days, he will declare himself explicitly to 
at least three of our friends. This step, without the least 
hesitation, he acceded to, — indeed it was necessary for the 
union of our friends here. The Measure however is to have no 
publicity, but the Opinion of the Gentlemen selected is to be 
deemed authoritative and to have the force of ascertained facts. 
I cannot detail to you in a Letter all that passed. The Offers 
made to him to withdraw his pretensions, even within the last 
six days, have been of the most alluring kind. They were 
rejected with promptitude and disdain. His course of reason- 
ing as to his future conduct exactly corresponds with that 
suggested in your Letter. On us & us only he in future could 
depend. 

I have received Letters from Philadelphia. Our friends there 
and in Jersey will be prepared to act with us. It is not improb- 
able, I shall go to Philadelphia for a day or so, in the course of 
two or three Weeks. South-Carolina & North-Carolina ought 
to be attended to. Our friends ought to be addressed in these 
States. You can do more in Boston there, than we can. In 
short we must be united. 

I have some doubts at present of the expediency of a Con- 
vention. My fear is our Object might be misrepresented. We 
shall appoint a corresponding Committee next week, and our 
Letters will go to our friends through the U. States. You ought 
to do the same, and I am inclined to think, the Correspondence 
with us, had best commence on your part — and the sooner 
the better. I am obliged to write in great Haste. I am, D Sir 

Respectfully Your friend 
J. O. H. 



318 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

OTIS TO WILLIAM SULLIVAN 
From the Manuscript Collection of the New York Public Library. 

Watertown, August 17— [1812] 
My dear Sir, 

The rain is so excessive that I cannot go to town. My pres- 
ence at 12, on a certain subject is not necessary, as you are so 
well possessed of my opinions, that we have no other alterna- 
tive but to support D W. C[linton]. 

As our friends propose a convention, it may be indispensable 
to accede to the suggestion — I earnestly pray I may not be a 
delegate, having many engagements at home. But in any 
event I should absolutely decline unless it is understood, that 
we go to 'promote his election. I should not choose to go to N 
York, and there find myself differing from my colleagues — 

Permit me to suggest that I think Col. Thorndike would be 
a very proper person for this commission. Mr. Gore will I 
presume be also one — In fact, as they will have the privilege 
of paying their own expenses, there being no shot in the Locker, 
I can perceive no objection to a dozen. Perhaps it would be 
also advisable to let the Hampshire people know that they may 
send one or more but the affair should be confidential. I think 
Jackson and yourself would do for want of better fellows. 

Yours very truly 
H. G. O. 

I shall be in tomorrow if I can hire a boat. 

Pray send me news by bearer. 

[The following, written in pencil in Sullivan's hand on a blank 
page of the letter, is evidently a record of the committee meeting 
that elected the delegates to New York.] 
Aug. 18, 1812. 

'G. C[abot] 
C. G[ore] 
C. J[ackson] 
H. G. 0[tis] 
W. P[rescott] 
W. S[ullivan] 
I. P. 49 

« 9 Christopher Gore states in a letter of October 5, 1812, to Rufus King (King, 
v, 283), that only Cabot, Sullivan, and himself were present at this meeting. 
The others mentioned here must have voted by proxy. 



Voted — that D. W. C. be supported 



THE FEDERALIST MACHINE 319 

That Hon C. Gore Esq. 
H. G. Otis 
I. Thorndike 
C. Jackson 
W. Sullivan 
S. Putnam 
and somebody from Hampshire [County be] chosen. 

SAMUEL DEXTER TO OTIS 

Boston 12th Sept. 1812. 

Dear Sir, 

Some days ago Mr. Joy mentioned that you were so kind as 
to express a wish that I would join you in N. York. On exam- 
ining the state of my engagements I find it would produce 
great derangement in my business; & as I have no belief that 
any important purpose could be attained by it I have declined 
the Journey, yet not without reluctance as I find Mr. Joy & Mr. 
Sullivan persevere in suggesting that it might be very useful. 
My opinions are of no great value, but I have no objection to 
stating them. The principal difficulty is said to be a disposition 
in some gentlemen to set up a federal candidate. When Piso 
conspired against Nero it was proposed to make Seneca 
Emperor; to this two objections of some weight appeared, 1st 
that it was not possible to make a sufficient party to put him 
in; & 2dly that if he were in he could not stay a moment in 
office, such was the state of public manners. Gov. Jay could no 
more play President than Seneca could Emperor. The great 
object is to prevent our annihilation as a commercial Nation. 
It is to me of little importance whether the rulers be of one 
party name or another. Every expedient will of necessity be 
temporary & only a choice of evils. Such indeed is Government 
itself. The great question is how can we escape with as little 
suffering as possible & for as long as possible. If these objects 
can best be obtained by a coalition with a portion of the oppo- 
site party why should pride or passion prevent it? An honor- 
able peace is the present object; & I hope the Country can bear 
it & the prosperity that might attend it. Tho' sometimes I 
indulge gloom eno' to think that we are so corrupt as to need 
war. Everything that ought to be honorable in our Country 



320 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

seems to be at market as much as butcher's meat. To allude 
to the Roman history once more; when no formidable enemy 
remained corruption made them a fit prey for barbarians. While 
they were warlike they suffered, but they were magnanimous. 
The Greeks produced patriots, for posterity to admire, in the 
midst of War & Revolution. They have left a blaze of 
light behind them, but it was because their Country was on 
fire. I find I am only preaching. It is more easy to say what I 
do not want than what I do. I promised that I would write & 
I have performed my engagement. 

Yours very truly 
Sam. Dextek 



CHAPTER XVII 

jefferson's embargo 

1807-1808, me. 42-43 

/ After the Chesapeake incident, Jefferson lost the only 
chance of declaring war against Great Britain, when such 
a war would have secured unanimous support. Looking 
back on 1807 from a period of Hague conferences and arbi- 
tration treaties, Jefferson's moderation and restraint at 
that trying period seems most commendable. But the 
sequel proved that none of his expedients could prevent 
a war, which might far better have come in 1807, with the 
entire nation up in arms over the insult to its flag, than in 
1812, after one section of the Union had been led by four 
years of commercial restriction into an attitude of violent 
disaffection. Instead of commencing reprisals or encour- 
aging the war spirit, Jefferson issued, on July 2, 1807, a pro- 
clamation closing American ports to British men-of-war, 
and expressing his confidence that Great Britain would 
apologize for the Leopard's action. The British government 
did acknowledge its fault, though somewhat ungraciously, 
and sent a special envoy to the United States to make 
reparation for the damage done, but with such conditions 
attached as to make it impossible for Jefferson to accept 
the offer. 

Before this envoy arrived, European affairs assumed 
an aspect even more alarming for the United States than 
before. It became evident that the British government and 
Napoleon had determined that there should be no more 
neutrals. In September, 1807, Copenhagen, the capital city 
of a neutral nation, was bombarded by a British fleet, and 



322 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

Denmark forced to surrender its fleet, simply in order to 
prevent its falling into the hands of France. The lesson 
was as applicable to the United States as had been the 
overthrow of Venice and Switzerland in the Federalist 
period. Already the Orders in Council of England and 
the Decrees of Napoleon had narrowed to a minimum the 
scope of trade permitted to neutrals. 1 In December, 1807, 
information arrived of a new and sweeping Order in 
Council, forbidding all direct trade between the United 
States and continental Europe, unless the cargo should 
first be landed in Great Britain and pay duty. Five days 
later came an official notice of the King's proclamation of 
October 17, requiring naval officers to exercise the right 
of impressment to its fullest extent. This was adding 
insult to the injury of the Chesapeake affair. 

Jefferson felt that the moment had come for prompt and 
vigorous action, both to protect American shipping and 
sailors, and to coerce the two powerful belligerents into 
abandoning their anti-neutral systems. He had no desire 
for war. It was an opportunity to try an experiment he 
had dreamed of for years, — the appealing to Europe's 
self-interest by prohibiting commercial intercourse with 
it. At his dictation, the Republican majority in Congress 
passed the famous Embargo Act, which from December 
22, 1807, until March 4, 1809, forbade the American mer- 
chant marine to engage in foreign commerce, and placed 
burdensome restrictions on coastwise traffic. 

Jefferson intended the embargo to be the crowning 
measure of his administration; it remains as the typical 
example of his theoretical statesmanship. Theoretically, 
embargo was a perfect substitute for war, without the 

1 Napoleon's Berlin Decree of December 10, 1806, declaring the British Isles 
to be in a state of blockade, was applied to American vessels after August, 1807. 
The British Orders in Council of January 7, 1807, forbade to neutrals coastwise 
commerce between ports belonging to Napoleon or his allies. 



JEFFERSON'S EMBARGO 323 

attendant cost and loss of life; theoretically, it would at 
once protect vessels and produce from capture, and inflict 
such hardships on the two belligerents as to force them 
into compliance with our demands to observe the inter- 
national law of neutrality. Practically, the embargo 
proved the greatest failure of any political experiment 
ever tried in the United States. It protected ships, but 
destroyed commerce; it produced no effect whatever on 
either belligerent, but threw the carrying trade into other 
hands; it was enforcible only by measures which violated 
popular ideas of liberty. Worst of all, it caused such eco- 
nomic distress in New England as to revive the decadent 
power of Federalism in that section, and to throw the 
Federal party into the arms of the Essex Junto. 

The Federal party had experimented with a temporary 
embargo in Washington's second administration, and 
rejected it as a failure. When it was again proposed, in 
1798, to offset the French spoliations, Otis declared: 

A general Embargo would not protect either our commerce 
or navigation, but destroy both. ... A partial Embargo upon 
our own vessels, while it puts an end to our navigation, would 
materially affect our commerce, and all that remains would be 
carried on by the belligerent nations or by neutrals, under 
great additional charges and expenses. 2 

These predictions were amply fulfilled in 1808, and espe- 
cially in Massachusetts, where over one third of the 
tonnage of the United States was owned, and where the 
shipbuilding and cod-fishing industries almost wholly 
concentrated. Its lucrative carrying trade was entirely de- 
stroyed, except for those vessels which happened to be 
abroad at the time the embargo was laid; and the ship- 
building industry was completely tied up. It was useless 
to tell the shipowners that the embargo was for their own 

2 Letter to the Hon. William Heath (1798), 17. 



. 



324 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

protection, since the Orders in Council had left loopholes 
for lucrative trade under British protection, which they 
longed to enjoy. Nor did seamen and laborers in maritime 
industries see the advantage of embargo over war. Em- 
bargo forced them to depend on charity or to emigrate to 
Canada to keep from starving; 3 war would have continued 
or even increased the demand for their labor. Before the 
embargo had been in force many months, stagnation, 
bankruptcy, and distress were the rule along the New 
England coast. The farmers of the interior, now that 
exports had ceased, found their products a glut on the 
market, and prices of imported goods greatly enhanced. 
Except in regions that profited by the stimulus to domes- 
tic manufactures, there was throughout the Union the 
same state of exasperation and distress. 4 

To the Federalist leaders in Massachusetts, and especi- 
ally to the Essex Junto, whose minds were working in the 
same old mercantile and pro-British groove, Jefferson's 
embargo seemed an insidious attempt to ruin New Eng- 
land's prosperity, and to provoke England to war. They 
could not attribute to Jefferson any genuine solicitude for 

3 Reports of John Howe, a British spy, in Am. Hist. Rev., xvn, 89-90. Howe 
sarcastically called the embargo "An Act for the better encouragement of the 
British Colonies in America." 

4 Professor Channing, in his Jeffersonian System, 219, says that "The oppo- 
sition to the embargo in New England was mainly political," and denies that it 
caused great or unusual distress. The Federal party naturally made political 
capital out of the embargo, and exaggerated its effects in newspapers and 
speeches. Much relief was also obtained through smuggling. But all economic 
data point to the correctness of the statements I have made above. Democratic 
leaders freely admitted as much in their private correspondence — see the 
Jefferson and Adams MSS. for the period — and foreign travelers and spies 
received the same impression. Many communities that remained faithful to the 
Democratic party all through the embargo period suffered most seriously from 
it; but they believed, like Jefferson, that the sacri6ce was worth while in order 
to coerce England. And the embargo converted to Federalism many communi- 
ties and sections that previously had been Democratic, viz., the coast districts 
of North Carolina. Cf. Mrs. St. J. Ravenel, William Lowndes, 75-78; C. H. 
Ambler, Sectionalism in Virginia, 87; S. Roads, Marblehead, 230-39. 



JEFFERSON'S EMBARGO 325 

commerce and shipping. From his "Notes on Virginia" 
it was evident that he regarded commerce from the com- 
bined standpoint of a French physiocrat and a losing 
farmer, and believed that the bulk of New England's 
carrying trade was a positive detriment to the nation. If 
he had since changed his opinion, why had he steadily 
refused to provide a navy for the protection of com- 
merce; why had he laid up the only effective vessels that 
survived the French naval war, only two months before 
the embargo was laid? If the embargo were for the protec- 
tion of shipping, why was land traffic over the Canadian 
border prohibited? Moreover, the Essex Junto had no 
doubt that the embargo was laid at French dictation, in 
order to aid Napoleon in his efforts to annihilate the Brit- 
ish Empire, and was intended as a mere prelude to war 
with England. If such were not the case, why was every 
Democratic newspaper extolling Napoleon and decrying 
England; denouncing the Orders in Council (which the Es- 
sex Junto considered legal methods of retaliation against 
France), and apologizing for Napoleon's far more sweep- 
ing Berlin and Milan decrees? Napoleon, to these Fed- 
eralists, was the living embodiment of the forces that 
threatened the property and power of men of their class 
all over the world. They were willing to grant England's 
every claim in order to aid her in her battles; willing to 
accept gratefully such crumbs of commerce as she might 
graciously bestow. In spite of Jefferson's presumptuous 
claims, argued Timothy Pickering, England had been for- 
bearing and magnanimous to the United States. "Al- 
though Great Britain, with her thousand ships of war, 
could have destroyed our commerce, she has really done 
it no essential injury." 5 

5 Pickering's Letter to his Constituents (1808). Cf. "Essex Resolutions" of 
October 6, 1808, printed in Salem Gazette, October 14, 1808, and in pamphlet 
form (Newburyport, 1808). 



2& 



/?, 



4^ 

326 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

These arguments were tersely and effectively advanced 
by Senator Pickering, the leader of the Essex Junto, in a 
letter dated February 16, 1808, to Governor Sullivan of 
Massachusetts. Recognizing its force, Sullivan (a Repub- 
lican) attempted to suppress it, but Pickering's friends 
had it printed early in March. Within a few days the 
Federalist party organizations throughout the state were 
circulating thousands of copies of the "Letter from the 
Hon. Timothy Pickering . . . exhibiting to his Constitu- 
ents a View of the Imminent Danger of an Unnecessary 
and Ruinous War," in newspapers, pamphlets, and broad- 
sides. 6 Although similar arguments had disgusted Massa- 
chusetts in 1804 and 1807, the economic effects of the 
embargo had now prepared the people's minds for their 
reception. "The Embargo will touch their bone and their 
flesh, when they must curse its authors," wrote Pickering 
in private; 7 and election returns of April, 1808, proved 
that for once he had gauged correctly the feelings of his 
constituents. Jefferson lost his power over the General 
Court of Massachusetts: the fruit of years of labor and 
caution. The Federal party secured a majority in both 
Senate and House, and returned Harrison Gray Otis and 
Timothy Bigelow to the presiding chairs from which they 
had been deposed two years before. 8 This election marks 
the beginning of a renaissance of Federalism, in which 
that party, so crushingly defeated between 1800 and 
1807, succeeded in establishing a powerful opposition, 
under the shelter of state rights, to the Republican ad- 
ministrations. 

6 See Dwight's letter following this chapter; cf. H. C. Lodge, Cabot, 379-82; 
Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc, xlv, 359; King, v, 88. 

7 N. E. Federalism, 367. Cf. Amer. Hist. Rev., xvn, 747. 

8 The vote was 19-17, and 252-221; not a great majority. In the Senate then 
elected Federalist measures were habitually carried by the Senators from Suf- 
folk, Essex, Worcester, and Hampshire Counties, voting against those from 
the rest of the state. 



\ 



JEFFERSON'S EMBARGO 327 

The victory would have been more complete had Otis, 
as was generally expected, been nominated for governor 
instead of Christopher Gore. 9 This nomination was dis- 
tinctly the work of the Essex Junto, which had taken 
Gore into its full confidence, but distrusted Otis more 
than ever, since his memorable independence at the time 
of the Chesapeake affair. Gore was a gentleman of wealth 
and culture who lacked the popular talents that Otis pos- 
sessed in so marked a degree. He was over-fond of dis- 
playing his great wealth, his oratory and manners were 
stiff and formal, and his father had been a refugee Tory. 
Further, he had resided many years in England, and his 
religious views were too liberal for the orthodox Connecti- 
cut Valley. 10 It is not surprising, therefore, that the 
Democratic candidate, General Sullivan, a popular old 
hero of the Revolution, was reelected to the governor- 
ship. 

The General Court of Massachusetts had been in ses- 
sion barely a week when its majority asserted itself by 
expelling John Quincy Adams from the Federal party. 11 
Although elected to the United States Senate in 1803 as 
a Federalist, by a Federalist General Court, yet during 
the past six months Adams had gone completely over to 
Jefferson. He attended and cast a vote at the Democratic 

9 "Why was not Mr Otis, agreeably to the general expectation, selected as 
the federal candidate for the office of Governor, except that Mr. Gore's British 
attachments entitle him to a preference?" Chronicle, March 28, 1808. The 
Democrat (March 30) sneers at Otis as the dupe of the Essex Junto. "They will 
please his vanity, but never gratify his ambition." — "The British faction will 
never suffer one of the descendants of old whigs to hold any office of honor if 
they can help it." 

10 " Messrs Gore and Cobb, you see, are unanimously set up. The friends of 
Mr. Otis fell in, though sorry that the latter was not fixed upon last year. As 
you know, it is not the best nomination that could be made. General Cobb is 
too jolly. Mr. Otis is more regular at church than Mr. Gore." President Kirk- 
land of Harvard to Josiah Quincy, Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc, xvn, 113. 

11 Worthington C. Ford, "The Recall of John Quincy Adams," Proc. Mass. 
Hist. Soc, xlv, 354. 



328 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

congressional caucus that nominated Madison for the 
presidency; 12 he voted for the embargo; he attacked his 
colleague Pickering's arraignment of it in a published 
"Letter to the Hon. Harrison Gray Otis on the Present 
State of our National Affairs," which the Democratic 
party circulated as a campaign document. If anything 
under the sun could signify a change of party allegiance, 
these three acts certainly did ; but Adams always consid- 
ered himself a martyr for his expulsion from the Federal 
party, and affected to believe that it was a punishment for 
his failure to defend the Leopard's attack on the Chesa- 
peake.™ 

The Federal party of Massachusetts stripped John 
Quincy Adams of his colors by prematurely choosing his 
successor in the United States Senate on June 2, 1808. 
He promptly took the hint, and resigned for the remainder 
of his term. Otis was chairman of the legislative caucus 
that nominated, as Adams's successor, James Lloyd, Jr., 
a Boston merchant and banker whom the Essex Junto 
trusted; yet he does not seem to have sympathized with 
that act. Otis and Adams both belonged to the liberal 
wing of the Federal party, a fact which the latter recog- 
nized in addressing to Otis his attack on Pickering. Their 
personal relations were cordial, though not intimate, and 
there was a traditional bond of friendship between their 
families. Adams wrote, in 1829, that his published Letter 
was not entirely lost upon Otis. "He never answered it, 
and, for some time, kept his opinions in reserve." He 

12 Adams wrote his mother on April 20, 1808, that in spite of this act it was 
explicitly understood that he had no intention to join the party or become a 
partisan of either candidate. It is difficult to understand what other object he 
could have had in attending and voting. 

13 N. E. Federalism, 185. Adams had been an object of suspicion to the Essex 
Junto for years, but not more so than Otis. Stephen Higginson, in 1804, sent 
Pickering a private denunciation of Adams in almost the same words with which 
he maligned Otis in 1797. 



JEFFERSON'S EMBARGO 329 

records a conversation with Samuel Allyne Otis, in 
which the latter said that his son "was mortified at the 
electing of another person in my place : that his son had 
done everything in his power to prevent it, but could not; 
that the tide ran too strong; that 'the Essex Junto were 
omnipotent'" u 

If Otis felt this way, argued Adams, he too should have 
supported the embargo, especially since he had promised, 
in the town meeting of July 16, 1807, to support any 
measures judged necessary by the administration for the 
safety and honor of the country. No doubt a conflict was 
raging in Otis's mind as to the proper course for him to 
pursue. Probably the answer he would have given Adams 
would have been something like this: "My joint pledge 
with you in the town meeting related to the Chesapeake 
affair; and I fulfilled it by loyally supporting the adminis- 
tration while that question was pending. Great Britain 
has now disavowed the action of the Leopard's comman- 
der, and I consider that incident closed. I do not oppose 
the embargo by the same course of reasoning as Senator 
Pickering; I do not share his favorable views of British 
policy, and I trust that our administration is seeking nei- 
ther to serve France nor to destroy the prosperity of New 
England. But the embargo falls with undue weight on 
the interests of our native state, without any correspond- 
ing benefit to the nation. You claim the embargo 'must 
in its nature be a temporary expedient,' 15 but we know 
that the president intends it to be a permanent policy; 
and a permanent embargo will sacrifice the very rights 
for which we are contending. You claim that national 
honor requires its united support, but I see neither honor 
nor dignity in this contemptible Chinese policy. Let Mr. 
Jefferson give us a pledge of his sincerity by restoring our 

14 N. E. Federalism, 202. 1B Letter to the Hon. U. G. Otis, 11. 



330 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

navy to the strength and prestige it had in your father's 
administration; let him then seek justice from England 
and France through diplomacy, and he will have my sup- 
port, and, I believe, that of the greater portion of the 
Federal party. Meanwhile I shall remain a Federalist, 
and endeavor, without your aid, to counteract that 
British influence in the party which I deplore no less 
deeply than yourself." 

Otis's influence is evident in the moderate course fol- 
lowed by his party until the winter. Governor Sullivan, 
in his opening speech of the spring session, asserted that 
Federalist opposition to the embargo could have but one 
end in view, the dissolution of the Union. The Senate and 
House in reply contented themselves, however, with repu- 
diating the charge, and denouncing a permanent embargo 
as unconstitutional. In August came news of a change in 
the European situation, that made commercial restriction 
more irksome to New England than ever before. Spain 
had revolted against Napoleon and King Joseph; Great 
Britain had espoused her cause; and only the embargo 
prevented New England shippers from supplying the 
allied armies with provisions. In Boston, a special town 
meeting was called for August 9. Jonathan Mason opened 
it with a motion requesting the President to remove the 
embargo either wholly, or partially in regard to Spain and 
Portugal, under a recent power invested in him by Con- 
gress. Otis, Gore, and Daniel Sargent sustained the mo- 
tion, which was carried by a strong majority, in spite of 
the opposition of prominent Democrats. 16 An exceed- 
ingly temperate set of resolutions was then adopted. The 
inhabitants express their willingness "to endure any pri- 
vations which the public welfare may require," and apolo- 
gize for not awaiting the meeting of Congress, on the 

» Centinel, August 10, 1808. 



( 



JEFFERSON'S EMBARGO 331 

ground of the change in European affairs, and their press- 
ing desire for 

relief from the pressure of this great calamity, which bears with 
peculiar weight on the Eastern States. — Denied by nature 
those valuable & luxuriant Staples which constitute the riches 
of the south, they necessarily owe much of their prosperity 
under the Blessing of Heaven to their own enterprise & Indus- 
try on the Ocean. . . They therefore pray that the Embargo in 
whole or in part may be suspended. 17 

Evidently Boston Federalism was still independent 
of the Essex Junto. In the debate, moreover, Otis and 
Mason argued that war with England would be preferable 
to embargo, 18 although Pickering's principal objection to 
the embargo w 7 as the fact that it might lead to war. The 
Boston resolutions, which were communicated to other 
towns in the state, produced a crop of similar petitions to 
the President. 19 

It soon became evident that Jefferson had no intention 
of answering these prayers for relief. Jefferson refused 
to modify the embargo in favor of the Spanish patriots, 
whom Democratic journals denounced as "factious Reb- 
els," both from fear of offending Napoleon, and from 
a desire to share in the spoils of the Spanish empire. 20 
This attitude, serving further to spread the belief that 
French influence was at the bottom of Jefferson's policy, 
produced a vigorous demonstration of the Essex Junto in 
favor of extreme measures, at an Essex County conven- 

17 Boston Town Records 1796-1813, 238. 

18 Chronicle, August 15, 1808. 

19 Down to September 28, 1808, at least seventy Massachusetts towns, seven 
others in New England, and six in New York had memorialized the President 
against the embargo. Ceniinel, September 28. 

20 H. Adams, United States, iv, 339-42, 385. Orchard Cook, a Democratic 
member of Congress from Maine, wrote John Quincy Adams on January 1, 
1809: "In short to be plain — Mr. Madison long since told me If we opened a 
Trade with Spain & Portugal it would be War with France — & was so laid 
down by Vattel." Adams, MSS. Cf. King, v, 110. 



332 HARRISON GRAY ^OTIS 

tion on October 6. But the Federal party as a whole was 
disposed to await the result of the presidential election 
before taking further steps to end the embargo. 

During the summer and autumn the Federalist reac- 
tion continued in the Northern States. In May, the New 
York Federalists doubled their delegation in the state 
assembly which was to choose presidential electors, and 
placed themselves in a position to combine with the Clin- 
tonians, who had also adopted an anti-embargo policy. 
When state elections in the last days of August and early 
September swung back the rest of New England into 
the Federalist column, the prospect of electing Charles 
Cotesworth Pinckney, the nominee of the Federalist 
national convention, 21 appeared excellent to Otis's corres- 
pondents. "It seems by the accounts from all quarters," 
John Rutledge wrote him on September 10, "that a real 
& great change has taken place in the public sentiment & 
that we are about to return to the golden days when the 
government of the Country, placed in the ablest & best 
hands, will administer our affairs on manly & correct prin- 
ciples." Eighty-nine electoral votes were necessary for a 
choice. Otis's friends were certain of New England's 
forty-five, of at least ten from Delaware and the coast 
districts of Maryland and North Carolina, and confident 
of obtaining Pennsylvania's twenty and New Jersey's 
eight. The nomination of a "favorite son " of South Caro- 
lina led them to hope for success in that state, also, which 
would have given them a majority. But Pinckney secured 
only forty-seven electoral votes to Madison's one hundred 
and twenty-two. This was a notable increase over his 
fourteen votes of 1804; but it ended all chance of remov- 
ing the embargo by a change of rulers. With the people of 
New England now facing another winter of privation and 

21 See chapter xvi. 



JEFFERSON'S EMBARGO 333 

distress, President Jefferson could hardly expect them 
henceforth to confine their opposition within prudent or 
constitutional bounds. 

LETTERS 

JOSIAH DWIGHT TO OTIS 

Northampton March 16, 1808 
Hon H G Otis Esqr 

Sir 
In our former letter we communicated to you the anxious 
Sollicitude that pervaded all classes of people in this part of 
the Commonwealth, on the subject of our national affairs. 
Information received from all quarters, since the date of our 
last, was uniformly calculated to increase rather than diminish 
the general anxiety; and the receipt of Colo. Pickering's Letter 
has confirmed us in the opinion that the Executive Government 
of the United States are resolutely bent on the pursuance of 
measures which will bring ruin & destruction on the people. To 
avert the ruin which is now impending over us, we think the 
voice of the people ought immediately to be expressed, in that 
bold and dignified manner, which cannot be misunderstood by 
those who mis-rule the nation. Under this impression we have 
thought it wise & prudent to bring the subject before the Inhab- 
itants of this place, assembled in Town meeting. After a 
lengthy, animated & candid Discussion, it was voted, almost 
unanimously, that the Selectmen should prepare to forward to 
Congress a Memorial, 22 & also an address to the several Towns 
within the County, requesting this concurrence in similar meas- 
ures. The Court of sessions commenced their sitting in this 
place yesterday. A number of Gentlemen from different parts 
of the County are collected to attend this Court. These gentle- 
men attended a meeting which was holden last evening, and ex- 
pressed their warm approbation of the proceedings of this Town, 
at the same time pledging themselves to use their exertions that 
similar measures should be adopted in the several Towns to 

22 Northampton evidently led the way in the policy of memorializing Con- 
gress on the embargo. Cf. N. E. Federalism, 369, and Steiner, McHenry, 516. 



334 HARRISON GRAY OTIS 

which they belong. Indeed each & every one of them declared his 
sanguine belief that the minds of the people in his Town were 
fully prepared to be active on this subject. We have also 
taken measures to procure the printing & circulation of Colo. 
Pickering's Letters, together with an address from the select 
men. 

We have thought proper thus far to inform you that, in this 
hour of Peril & Distress, the people in this County are at their 
Posts, & are prepared to cooperate with their political friends in 
different parts of the Commonwealth, in any measures that 
shall in wisdom be devised for the public good. We know little 
of what is doing elsewhere, tho' we have been long anxiously 
waiting for information from the " Headquarters of good prin- 
ciples." It gave us much pleasure, however, to see in the late 
Boston Papers, the nomination of Messrs. Gore & Cobb for the 
Offices of Govr. & Lt. Govr. — That the measures adopted by 
us, & proposed for the adoption of others, if generally carried 
into effect, — will have any influence, to check the mad career 
of the man, who now rules with absolute sway, the councils of 
the nation, may perhaps be somewhat problematical. But even 
should the Idol chief of the dominant Party turn a deaf ear to 
our remonstrances, & refuse us relief from our anxiety & distress, 
we have another object in view, in the attainment of which 
we think these measures will have a very happy influence. Colo. 
Pickering's letter, tho' it contains little information entirely 
new, yet coming in such a form & from such high authority, it is 
calculated to excite the attention of the people, & rouse many 
from that Lethargy which had almost fatally seized them. 
The unwarranted suppression of that letter also, by the chief 
Magistrate of the Commonwealth, when it was expressly in- 
tended to be communicated to the Legislature, is a violation of 
official duty which ought to be seized on with avidity, & made 
the theme of popular clamor, to blast the reputation of the 
man who would thus dare to conceal from his constituents, a 
document so highly interesting. We do believe, Sir, that if we 
meet our political enemies manfully, with the weapons which 
are thus providentially put into our hands, it will insure us suc- 
cess at the approaching election. We can assure you of the ut- 
most exertions of all good people in this large County, & we 
think that existing circumstances justify us in the belief, that a 



JEFFERSON'S EMBARGO 335 

greater number of Federalists may be brought to the Polls than 
in any former year. . . . 

By order of the corresponding Committee, I am sir 

Very respectfully your Obedt Servt 

Josiah Dwight 



GEORGE CABOT TO OTIS 

Boston Augt 14, 1808 
My Dear Sir — 

*********** 23 

I recollect it was said last winter that the restraints contem- 
plated on the coasting trade wou'd never be enacted because it 
must be foreseen that our people wou'd not tolerate them — 
"they wou'd seize upon the Castle" if it shou'd be used to en- 
force such grievous measures; yet we find that the passage of a 
single canoe is not allowed but by special license & no violence 
or opposition is heard of. — the reason is plain & Mr. J acts 
upon the knowledge of it. Mr. Jefferson is the man of the 'popu- 
lace & both are gratified too well in seeing those they hate hum- 
bled — the populace consider Mr. J their head, & this silences 
their complaints, on the whole I am persuaded if it were not for 
the sufferings brought on us by the Embargo Mr. J & Mr. M 
wou'd be immoveable — yet they have managed ill for 7 years; 
how then can gentlemen insist that 4 years more wou'd produce 
a contrary effect? it wou'd not, experience as well as reason 
teaches clearly that the people will adhere to those who are the 
instruments of their passions & will shun those who wou'd con- 
troul them — if Mr. J coud at this moment remove the embargo 
without a quarrel with France I think he cou'd quarrel with 
England in spite of her equity & moderation. 

yours truly 

G C 

23 The first part of this letter relates to the Federalist presidential nomina- 
tions, and is printed in Amer. Uist. Rev., xvn, 755. 



END OF VOLUME I 






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